Happy Friday! I hope today’s the gateway to a beautiful weekend for you.
I just love weekends. You know – laundry, housework, grocery shopping, menu planning, cooking. All the fun stuff in life that I’d personally rather avoid, if the truth be known. And yet… we must do what we must do. And besides, if we never did the unfun stuff, how could we appreciate the fun stuff?
Still, on the weekend, I always enjoy a good delve into a rabbit hole or two of various interests, one of which usually involves needlework. Today, I’ll share a lovely resource with you, so that you can enjoy a bit of a reprieve from the humdrum parts of the weekend, too.
Over at the University of Heidelberg online, there’s a fabulous archive of the Cora Ginsburg catalog. This is a catalog that’s been published each year since 1995, featuring the gallery’s “extensive inventory…of historic and modern textiles, dress, and objects dating from the seventeenth to the mid-twentieth century from Western Europe, the United States and Asia.”
Click on any image of the covers in the archive list, and you’ll be taken to a page with a button below the cover image that says “PDF.” Click on that, and a PDF will open that you can browse through.
You’ll find all kinds of needlework delights from distant and more recent history. You’ll be able to read about each piece featured in that particular catalog and learn a little about the materials, techniques and times in which it was made.
The archives are a real delight! If you’re a fan of historical embroidery, you’ll probably find a good bit of inspiration here!
I hope you enjoy meandering through these treasures from the past!
What Else is Up?
Well, yesterday, I notified all of you who were waiting for the magnificent ‘Sqround (that is, the square-round embroidery hoop) to arrive. If you’re not familiar with what this hoop is, I wrote about it here, and I’ve got extras available in the shop now, if you’re keen to have one. These are great hoops, and they come packaged with cotton twill tape so that you can bind the inner ring. They’ll last you a good long time!
I also added four more of Giuliana Buonpadre’s books to the shop! Yay! These four books are slightly different from the first three I listed a few weeks ago. They developed a little more organically, from the classes that Giuliana taught. They contain beautiful projects in reticello, punto antico, and other needlelace and embroidery techniques, many with Giuliana’s signature modern twist, utilizing color and unique free-form embroidery.
Volume 10 is Giuliana’s Hardanger book – Hardanger: Cornflowers and Other Flowers or Fiordaliso e Altri Fiori. It’s astounding! If you love Hardanger embroidery, you will find her explorations mesmerizing. She really blings it up and adds new life to Hardanger as we know it! Her work is really stunning!
In other important news: Finally! my fabric shipment for the last bit for Cotton Quartet arrived, so guess what we will be doing soon? Kitting, kitting, kitting! I’ll let you know when the materials kits are back in stock! It will probably take a couple weeks to get them completely ready to ship.
I’m still plugging away on the goldwork trials that we talked about earlier this week. I think I’ll share progress with you next week, if things aren’t looking too awful. Heh heh. It’s been a challenge to get back into the fine-ness of goldwork. All I can say is thank goodness for magnification.
The components for the next Stitch Snippet are all ordered and hopefully on their way. We’ll be delving into embroidery with silk – a small but beautiful piece to finish. It’ll be a perfect transitional project into Fall!
I know, I know… summer’s barely underway. But we’re hitting triple digits next week, and that just makes me want to call the whole season off.
Enjoy your weekend!
Finally the fates aligned and I wasn’t too late reading you got an item restocked! Yes, I know I could have done “alert me” earlier, but I was Seriously Discussing with myself if I Really Needed yet another hoop.
Thank you for the link to the archive, such wonderful eye candy for those of us nowhere near places that have such lovelies. I might stay inside and give them a good looking at instead of going out in the heat next week. Not that our heat will be anything near what’s on the way for you.
Best rabbit hole all year! Thanks a bunch. Charlotte
Dear Mary
It look like a busy weekend for you I hope you get everything done. The archive look really interesting and seems to be full of historical embroidery. I wish I could afford the sqround hoop they are such well made hoops. Yes thank goodness for magnification my eyes are getting worse as I get older and I use magnification more and more. Thank you for all the information above and for letting us know of your recent shipments, its good to know that things will be sent out. I do hope you had a lovely weekend.
Regards Anita Simmance