In one of the online embroidery groups that I joined, I was asked how long I had been doing embroidery. When I wrote down sixty-two years, I stared at what I had written and then did some quick math in my head. My mother taught me to embroider when I was five and since I am now sixty-seven, my answer was correct. Mother bought a stamped cross stitch, three piece dresser set for my first project. When I completed the embroidery, she crocheted an edging around all three pieces. I think I still have that dresser set somewhere in all my collection of textiles.
At the same time that I was doing the embroidery, mother was teaching me to sew on her treadle sewing machine. I have always liked speed so I would pedal just as fast as I could and would really make that old sewing machine hum. Think that might be the reason I had such skinny legs as a kid. When I was about ten, she traded the treadle machine in on a new electric sewing machine. Now I could really sew fast. One day one of mother’s sisters was visiting and she was shocked that mother was letting me sew on the electric machine. In a very disapproving voice she said to mother, “You are letting HER sew on that new machine.” In her most commanding voice mother said to her sister, “I bought the sewing machine for her to sew on.”
Later mother taught me to crochet but that is one fiber craft that just did not take with me. I can do the four basic stitches and can make a great chain any length, but when it comes to reading directions, they might as well be written in Greek. Knowing how to do the chain stitch in crochet did come in handy when I was weaving for I needed to chain the warp when I took if off the warping board. Mother’s efforts in teaching me the basic crochet stitches were not a total loss.
That is a beautiful Quilt. Love the design.
Amazing how the years go by, isn’t it? I love the story about you and the sewing machines. I learned to sew on a 37 FW, I think. It was before the tension wheel had numbers! I could never cook fancy food, but give me a sewing machine and I was happy.