HT 6: Embroidered book jacket

Summer has been keeping me occupied and it still is. Many plans and projects have been left at a standstill, sometimes deliberately, sometimes unintentionally, while something else has taken over. One of the forgotten thoughts is my Handmade treasures series. I am reviving it in this post hoping to get it going on a more regular basis now that we are heading towards autumn and even worse.

This treasure is my latest handmade flea market find, a book jacket of linen with a light cotton lining and embroidered rowan fruit on the cover. This is the kind of handicraft that could never pass unnoticed by me. Every time I discover something like this I am amazed someone would want to get rid of such a delightful item. All the better for us who cannot get enough of them.

The folds are deep enough to make the jacket suitable for both thicker and thinner books. Too bad I don’t seem to have any time for novels these days. Maybe there will be some use for the jacket in a few months when the season I don’t care to mention yet is again entangling us in a state of not that welcome blues.

HT 5: Framed embroidered flowers

Time certainly flies. Tomorrow will be the first of April and I haven’t posted anything on my Handmade treasures series in March.

So here is one of my most recent flea market finds, embroidered poppies and forget-me-nots in frames painted in glossy black. By chance, these are two of my favourite flowers. But then again, the list of my favourite flowers would be such a long one almost any flower would qualify, at least if embroidered.

I don’t know yet where to hang this treasure. For the present, it is standing on my ‘sewing’ desk. It may stay there permanently to inspire me into action. I have some projects I should implement in the next couple of weeks. If these flowers can’t make it happen I don’t know what could.

HT 4: Embroidered tablecloth

It’s about time I continued my Handmade treasures series so I’m displaying this lovely embroidered ‘Sunday’ tablecloth my mother made for me as a present some 15 years ago.

My parents retired – or rather were made to retire – in their mid-fifties at about the same time they had their first grandchild. Thus they were lucky to have almost three productive decades to devote entirely to their own interests. Their most precious gems were the 12 grandchildren they were blessed with during the years but they had plenty of time to engage themselves in many other kinds of things such as crafts, both at home and on special courses their local community offered.

My mother had always done lots of handicrafts and she was very skillful in all the types she took up. Everything that ever left her hands was flawless be it sewn, woven, knitted, crocheted or embroidered, as you can see from the close-ups. She made many precious pieces for her offspring and as regards me, she always got it right. I love all the items she surprised me with, not that I didn’t love the ones I later inherited.

The square tablecloth measuring 1.5m has proven very versatile. I’m hoping it will last much longer than my time so I’m only using it on special occasions but it is the perfect size for our living room coffee table as well as the breakfast table in the kitchen diner. In addition, it fits our extendable dining table nicely crosswise when the table is set at 2m or less.

How could you not love an item like this? I have never tried any embroidery yet and I believe if I ever could create anything haft as beautiful and laborious I would be forever proud.

(PS. In one respect nothing has changed since the late 1970s: employers still consider the over-fifty-year-olds an undesirable burden.)

HT 3: Cross stitch cushion

This is just a quick one to keep my Handmade treasures series going. A glimpse of this item could already be seen in my previous post of this series so I thought I could as well let you have a closer look.

This lovely retro style cross stitch cushion is made using thick wool yarn. The close-up shows the yarn is so chunky the cross is most of the time almost invisible. Thanks to the pattern of stylized daisies and the delightful colours it would have been absolutely impossible for me not to salvage this charming cushion when I spotted it at a flea market a couple of years ago. Now I can admire it every day on the bed in the alcove of my upstairs ‘studio’.

HT 2: Crochet bedspread

Choosing photos for the previous post reminded me about the Handmade treasures series I started in late October. My original plan was to introduce one item weekly but the first week has now turned into a good month. Our recent trip to Spain will serve as an excuse for the delay this time. Let’s worry about the frequency of the sequels later.

If you have visited my blog before you will have realized I’m not the black-and-white-and-grey sort of a person. In fact, that would be the colour palette I’d find the most uncomfortable to wear. I like my life to be colourful (never mind the fact it often isn’t) and this is also reflected in my clothing as well as home decor. So there was no escaping when I saw this crochet patchwork bedspread at a flea market several years ago, soon after I had moved to my old house in the countryside.

It is particularly the bright red and the ultramarine green (very fashionable in clothing now about a decade later) that please my eye in this piece. So does their matching harmony with the dark blue and greyish pale blue. I also like the orderly pattern of the diagonal rows that is enhanced by one round of grey around each square. And the red round around the completed spread adds the perfect finishing touch.

Unlike so many of my treasures, this item is hardly ever hidden in a closet. It is just the ideal size for the wide one-person bed in the alcove under the eaves in our upstairs ‘studio’ that used to be my daughter’s bedroom but now serves as my study. Sometimes I spread it on the extendable wooden bed made by my grandfather – another handmade treasure with a story to share one day.

Needless to say, when I bought this bedspread there was nothing in these colours in the designated room before. Now the red and the green are the accent colours there. For me, decorating often goes this way, gradually evolving around a fascinating textile of some sort, sometimes intentionally, sometimes intuitively out of a happy coincidence. I guess that’s just the correct kind of an approach for someone whose favourite items in her home are the handmade pieces.

Handmade treasures

This is my 100th post and it feels like I am finally coming to the point. You see, I’ve been thinking about what would be the ‘thing’ that is most precious to me, the tangible something outside the realm of the incomparable and irreplaceable, such as family, human relationships, nature and this planet itself, for these surely are the only issues that truly matter in the end. But if the larger-than-life things are set aside, what would be the one category of possessions I would find the hardest to part with if need be?

I love books and have quite a lot of them but most books could be borrowed from a library. I enjoy music but you could continue enjoying it without owning a single CD. The same is true about movies (I’m so lucky our home cinema system is my husband’s so it doesn’t count here). My jewellery is more of the pretty than precious kind; according to Colour Me Beautiful I’m a Summer meaning that silver compliments my skin tone so I only have a few golden pieces. (I’m starting to see a pattern here: all the ‘valuables’ first coming to my mind seem to be somehow related to the arts. Shame on those who think art is a waste of time and money!) Most of the other things I own could be replaced or given away without too much distress. But there is something...

For quite some time now, it’s been clear to me that what brings me joy the most are (old) handmade items, especially anything from the past decades that has been handcrafted with care out of yarn or fabric. My mother was very skillful at many kinds of handicrafts. When we were young she earned a living through them for years. You might have started to hate the sewings and weavings and all kinds of needlework that were always present at your home when you were a child but I learned to try some of them, to appreciate them and finally to love them. So did both my sisters, the younger one to such an extent she chose an artisan occupation; she is an entrepreneur in dressmaking.

I do have a soft spot also for many other sorts of handmade objects, such as hand-painted porcelain probably thanks to my great-aunt who was very clever at that kind of work, but I adore handcrafted textiles, particularly those kinds that have been the tradition here. I can’t get enough of them, of admiring them, of fingering them.

But what is the use of owning gorgeous uplifting things if you keep them hidden piled up in your cupboards and closets? I’ve only just recognized there will never come a time when I would have all my little handmade treasures organized and at display, at least if I’m treating them the way I’ve done so far.

Starting from today, I’m sharing this love of mine with you. The kick-off item is a topical one but very modest: a simple canvas work anyone with a little bit of patience could do. This kind of needlework was popular a few decades ago. So although the pattern is not local – our elks are more robust and our deer have less stately antlers – the item most probably is of domestic doing. I hope it finds its way to please the eyes of a few fellow handicraft lovers. If there is anyone out there who would like to copy the pattern please feel free to do so. And if you do I’d love to hear about it. (So much loving in this post; isn’t life great!)

I found this piece at a thrift shop some years ago. I keep it hanging on the wall of our glassed-in veranda by the main door from the time of the first autumn leaves until spring. Its wonderful bright colours cheer me up every time I step out of the door. If only I could stand the cold and step that way more often. Yes, it is our first snow you can see gleaming through the window here.