Can't you just picture it? The lady of the house sitting in her favorite chair in the evening after washing up the dinner dishes, needing to relax and unwind from the day's happenings, picking up her embroidery from the basket beside her chair.
It was her quiet time; her time to be creative. And her time to do a little something extra to make her house a home.
Aren't they fabulous? Why oh why did our lives have to become so hurried and complicated that we ended up losing sight of these little pleasures? Just looking at them takes me back to my childhood when I first saw the pillowcases that my grandmother had embroidered. I was about 8 or 9, I suppose, and my Mama Jones was pretty much my best friend. She had moved closer to my family when Papa had passed away, allowing me to spend so much more time with her. I treasure those days with all my heart.
One day she opened her cedar chest and showed me her pillowcases. They were decorated with bright, pretty bouquets and prancing pink poodles and ladies with parasols. All things enchanting to an impressionable young girl, and I was immediately smitten. I wanted to be able to create such lovely pictures with needle and thread.
I can't tell you how many of my Daddy's handkerchiefs were lost to my first attempts at embroidery. Bless his heart, he was a good sport and would just hand me another each time I would destroy the previous one by pulling out the threads one time too many!
Regretfully, Mama's eyesight was too poor by that time for her to be of much help in teaching me the art and I was pretty much on my own. I never really developed a knack for it, but it wasn't for lack of trying. The numerous needle-sticks made my fingers so sore that I flinch just thinking of it!
I still haven't completely given up hope. I have an embroidery hoop and a selection of floss and from time to time I give it another go.
But this busy life usually gets in my way. *sigh*
