My Neighbour's Family Treasures, Part 2.

 These embroidered cloths are from the home (pictured below) in Dunblane, Scotland that was a family holding of my neighbour Al McInnes. The same family responsible for the horse shoe jumper posted some time back (on Facebook, but also pictured below).

Young women of old were required to have a basic repertoire of needlework skills and to produce embellished tableware, bedding, undergarments and children’s wear for their families. Starting before marriage with their ‘hope’ chest and with school samplers, these amazing skills we now cherish and continue, though without the expectation. I'm sure the love was always there, in the making, but op shops are full of old doileys (for example) that nobody wants (except for all of us) and nobody uses (except us).

I’ve always been hugely inspired by what my foremothers considered the ordinary, basic skills of their domestic life. 

We watched our grandmothers and the old women knitting and ‘doing’ the whole time and thought nothing of it, not realizing the incredible structural engineering and intricacy of such ordinary crafts. Obviously we do understand it. Obviously we knew what we were looking at but I've had many a comment about my embroidering or knitting being a granny's thing to do. Not as cool as painting or printmaking (which I love). I've had plenty of eye-rolls when people ask what I've been up to. The whole craft world has gone (largely) under the radar of the art world and this might be the boon! The incredible disguised as the ordinary.

My ‘If I was stuck on an island and had to choose one book’ is the Encyclopedia of Needlework by Theresede Dillmont. In it are all the things you will need as a conscientious home-keeper. My copy is worn and earmarked and precious.

It's difficult to see with my rubbish Ipad camera (I have a whiz bang camera still in the box waiting for me to grow some whatsits and fire it up). This piece of Netting Work if the only I have ever seen where the net is hand knotted before being embroidered.

Even what may appear to be a simple dinner table or bread basket cloth has a lot of work involved. These edges were compulsory fare when I started High School. Sooo boring, I thought then. But underneath it I was interested and henceforth noticed the work in these everyday objects. Respect!! It takes forever.

The embroidered band here reminds me of a (much borrowed) book on Yugoslavian embroidery, which I used in my crazy quilt.

Another dinner cloth with hours and hours of edging work. Each leaf will be pad stitched underneath before the satin stitching on top.

Dunblane, Scotland. The Horse Shoe lace jumper below was made here too.

Thanks to Al McInnes for sharing these amazing pieces.