Needlework
Tradition Lives On
When I was two years old (the winter of 1930-31) my aunt knitted a little red cap for me. What happened to it I don’t know. Then after I learned to knit I knitted a red cap for most of the little two-year-old girls in this family and beyond. I need to keep one here…
Read MoreAh, it’s Fall 2006
This could be a morning fifty or sixty years ago. The air is nippy and there’s definitely a touch of fall in the air; however, inside the smell of turnip greens simmering on the back burner wafts through the air along with the fragrance of sourdough bread baking in the oven. Perhaps by the end…
Read MoreSwedish Weaving
My new project is Swedish Weaving, but the book I’m working from calls it a Monk’s Cloth Afghan. Monk’s cloth is available in white, natural, black and lots of other colors and it’s 59 – 60″ wide. It has an interesting texture due to the weave: four vertical and four horizontal threads that create blocks. By…
Read MoreSacks and Their Many Uses 2007
Many years ago about this time the planting on the farm would be completed and ladies would now be trying to get that stubborn black lettering out of the sacks. Ladies used all kinds of methods for letter removal — soaking, scrubbing and rubbing on the rub board, but nothing caused the black lettering to…
Read MoreNothing’s Like it Used to Be 2012
In the last year our extended family has acquired a new husband and a new baby. Hanging Christmas stockings has been a tradition in this family for a number of years and I’ve been trying to knit new stockings for these new family members. Would you believe I cannot find good yarn? In 2001 and…
Read MoreReflections of needlework Projects 1996
As I sit here at this sewing machine the memories it brings are endless. The 401A Singer is 38 years old – it’s the last machine Singer made with metal parts. How well I remember that hot summer day when it was delivered. It had a ruffler attachment (which I had never even seen before,…
Read MoreStill Learning Jan. 2003
“Never too old to learn” is an old adage that’s been around for years; however, it still remains the same. The residents of The Windy Knoll, even with their advancing years, keep learning. One thing for sure that we learn daily is that we cannot do what we used to do. John re-learned that a…
Read MoreTheads of Love
Threads of Love is a national organization that makes tiny clothes for pre-mature babies, donating them to hospitals around the nation. A number of years ago I read about the organization, made a few things and sent them to Louisiana. They thanked me, but told me of the chapter in Birmingham, so now that’s where my caps go,…
Read MoreMemories in a Pocketbook 1999
It was an article in a recent magazine that started me thinking about when had I ever cleaned out the innermost pockets of my purse — not only the one I carry every day, but others I never carry any more. In the beginning of this undertaking I discovered a virtual time capsule. This quote…
Read MoreFancy Stitches and Ribbon Embroidery
Needlework is as much a part of me as breathing. Maybe it’s in my blood since I’m from a long line of needlework people. My mother had several sisters and each one of them did some type of needlework. For a time I owned a crazy quilt top made by my grandmother, but I had…
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