History. History doesn't mean just the things that made up world events or the people who lead countries and created policies or wars. History includes the small things -- you might almost call it EveryWoman's History. The things in the home, the how-to's that were once passed from mother to daughter. Some of the recipes that were learned from a neighbour who was born in a different country. Perogies were one of those things in our home that we had never even heard of until Mrs. Kormilo taught my Mom how to make them and suddenly we went from the usual English Fare to Ukranian foods, cabbage rolls, borscht, and others...
Now, tho, it is often the internet where we learn about those new "olden days" things, or on occassion we might find some old books in a thrift shop that will explain a few thing or perhaps cause puzzlement because tools or methods have changed.
Buttonhooks?! That booklet was published in 1958 and says that Buttonhooks are becoming collectible.... hmmm... I don't think I have ever seen one or seen one in use. Have you?
Needlework and Embroidery - that books tells us that there are two types of quilting - English and Italian? It was published in 1966. I know my grandmother and my aunts were making quilts at that time, but with a book like that around they might have got quite confused by the definitions and names. Part of the instruction says - for your first lesson in quilting, make a simple potholder in gingham and use cotton wool for the padding. Now how far would you get with that without your mother or grandmother to give you measurements or to explain what cotton wool is or even what gingham is...
This page is photographed from a booklet simply called Samplers and was published in Great Britain in 1977. Considering the contents of the booklet you would think it was published much earlier because it shows examples and some stitches from a hundred years before. I really like the one above as it shows an embroidered Map of The Farm. Imagine, using needles and thread and cloth to embroider your gardens and animal pens, fields and the things you grow. This booklet shows how the needle and thread would record for memory events in a life, the birth of a child, a depiction of the farm house, the coronation of a king, bible verse, one photo in the booklet shows the grades and marks and teacher comments of a childs school years from 1787 to 1794!
Now these pages about quilting describes some of the procedures a bit more in detail. Use ground cinnamon pressed or pounded through a paper stencil onto the cloth to be quilted so you can follow a design. It also says that quilts should be made using silk, satin, or fine linen with either goose feather down, or wool placed by hand between the layers of fabric and quilted as you put then in to secure them in place. A totally different method that we use today. Those instructions come from a book called Home Handicrafts and Needlework, published in Great Britain, but has no date that I can find...
Sometimes looking for the History of things, especially small things, household things, everyday things are not quite as well recorded or explained the way the details of war and exploration is...
I wonder what it would be like trying to make a quilt with goose feathers as the middle layer? I don't believe they are meaning a duvet, either as the photo does show quite a bit of actual quilting done on the item.
Well, even tho I am not necessarily in the process of making History. I am still considering the research of historical methods to be a Work in Progress.... If I get a chance to find some goose feathers, I would even like to try making a bit of a quilted sample to find out what it might be like to do a quilted piece like that...
I am also working on a few 'needlework' christmas gifts that I'm sure you all understand why I am not showing them...
Only a couple more weeks to get those special projects done to put under the tree for the Big Day...
