Vintage embroidered whitework border

This is one of the "scraps" I bought at Brocante aan de Yssel a few weeks ago. (I tried to take pictures of the other pieces as well, but those images didn't turn out the way I wanted too :-) It's a long strip of whitework embroidery, maybe cut off from a night dress or something. I saw some aprons with this type of embroidery too. I don't know what time frame this is from, but it would be a really cute border on a nightgown like this.

Seven centuries of lace, Maria Margaret Pollen, 1908

Image from Seven centuries of Lace, by Maria Margaret Pollen

The past few weeks, my attention has been drawn by lace of all sorts... It started at the Brocante and Antiques Fair in Deventer, where I bought some gorgeous scraps of lace (no pictures yet, it takes time with an analog camera.... Then, Racaire wrote about the blog Italian Needlework, which is a must-read for anyone interested in historical needlework.

And now, I found this wonderful on-line book Seven centuries of Lace, by Maria Margaret Pollen (1908). You can download or browse it for free here.

The 17th century Italian towels above are really nice, and macrame is such a fun thing to do :-)

Embroidering a tablecloth in a perfect world

Image via the New York Public Library Digital Archive

In a perfect world, embroidering a large tablecloth would probably look like this (notice the serene smile on her face...). In the real world ... argghll... I keep having problems with managing a piece of fabric of 110 *300 cm. That's why I still haven't done more embroidery on my linen tablecloth... I hope that one day, I''ll have the perfect frame so I can move on!

ps: the flower border she's embroidering looks very cute!

Slow blogging: analog photography

"Summer afternoon, summer afternoon... the two most beautiful words in the English language" Henry James

This is one of the last pictures I took with my digital camera. Last weekend, it fell into the paddling pool while I was playing with my daughter... :-) So now, I'm going retro with my husbands analog mirror reflex camera from 1985 (and keep it away from the pool!). It's really going to be an interesting experience in slow blogging: there's "such" a time delay between taking an analog picture and being able to post it here :-)

Crocheted throw, work in progress

My crocheted throw is slowly getting bigger :-), but it's still not big enough... At first, I wanted it it to be the size of an Ikea baby bed, but then I decided I'd better make one for a children's bed, so my daughter can sleep under it longer. So, more crocheting for me to do :-)

One of the best/worst things of reading blogs, is that I always see something beautiful/supercool that inspires me so much I feel I want to start crafting right away. I had this feeling this morning when I saw this crocheted throw by Alicia Paulson. You can also buy the tutorial here. If I ever have another baby, I know which blanket to crochet:-). I also love the way she styled the photo. It reminds me that I've still got a long way to go...

Celebrating summer

Nothing better than to celebrate the beginning of summer with a bowl of cherries! Especially when both the cherries and the bowl happen to be in my favorite colors :-)

The bowl was a lucky thrift store find, and a great addition to my collection of vintage enamelware. I love collecting, but I use three rules when it comes to buying enamelware:

1) it must have a golden band
2) it must be in good condition, with a nice color
3) I will not pay more than 5 euros :-)

These rules really save me from buying too much :-)

Smocked dress 1974

I'm experimenting with 14th century smocking/pleadwork (blogged at medieval silkwork here). While looking for honeycomb stitch tutorials, I found this gorgeous smocked dress from 1974 (and I love this color too.. :-) Smocking can be a bit frumpy, old fashioned, but here it's used in a totally modern way. The image is from a Dutch translation of the Time Life Needlecraft series from 1974 (I can't find the original English title in the book.)