Creativity Magazine

Lady-like Stuff

By Vickilane

 Lady-like Stuff
From out of the blue came a desire to do some embroidery -- on pre-stamped pillow cases. It's like a coloring book for an embroiderer -- the lines are there and I need to stay with them but -- I get to choose the colors!

I found them  on E-bay -- 100% cotton unlike what my local fabric store had to offer. They were probably in some departed granny's sewing stash because they are slightly yellowed. No matter.
Lady-like Stuff
Embroidered pillow cases aren't exactly my style -- but it's a matter of nostalgia.  My mother -- who was not much of a needlewoman -- worked diligently to embroider a pair for me when I was probably around ten.  There was a lady in a hoopskirt, holding a parasol, and lots of flowers -- mostly pinks and greens, as best I can recall.    The work was carefully done -- as was my mother's way -- and I marvelled that she had spent so much time to make something so lovely just for me. (She always liked my younger brother best but that's another story.)
Lady-like Stuff
The hoopskirt lady pillow cases eventually wore out, but ten years later, as my mother and I were putting together a 'hope chest' for my approaching marriage, I embroidered another set  -- blue and yellow flowers this time.    Lady-like Stuff
Fast forward through the Marine Corps, teaching and building a house in Florida, children, moving to the mountains --- during this time I embroidered on jeans and on shirts and on quilts but it wasn't till we added on a guestroom and my childhood bed was installed in it that I felt the need for more embroidered pillow cases . . . that was almost twenty years ago.  I made a pair and they lasted well. (I noticed that guests often set them aside rather than actually sleep on them.) Lady-like Stuff
But nothing lasts forever and it was time for replacement. Hence my lady-like occupation the past several nights.

We've been re-watching  Foyle's War and working at this retro embroidery while I watch is a fine accompaniment to WWII Britain.

One down -- one to go.  But lots of Foyle left. Maybe I could take up crocheting doilies.


Lady-like Stuff

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