My Grandmother Taught Me Huck Embroidery

Embroidering on the vertical threads of the fabric surface.

This towel was embroidered by me in 1966. It’s called Swedish Embroidery or Swedish Weaving too. My father’s mother, who taught me to knit, taught me this design to embellish a linen towel. I remembering pulling threads with a needle to fringe the bottom edge

I discovered you can still get the Huck Toweling Fabric or Kits to embroider the towels.

Here’s a Beginners Video if you want to try it.

An article from PieceWork Magazine says…

“The French know this embroidery technique as broderie suedoise (Swedish embroidery); Italian needleworkers refer to it as punto filza (running stitch). In Spain, the same type of needlework is bordado Yugoslavo (Yugoslavian embroidery) or punto de llama (flame stitch). Ponto oitinho (eight stitch) is the Portuguese name for a strictly pictorial version of the technique in which designs are composed of rows of figure-eight (twisted-loop) stitches. A similar type of Portuguese embroidery, ponto vagonite (vagonite refers to the ground fabric), employs all the traditional huck-embroidery stitches”

“Huck embroidery, sometimes called huck weaving or Swedish weaving, is a form of embroidery that blends a bit of surface embroidery with weaving. Its name comes from huck cloth, which is the most common material used for this style, and as its alternate name suggests, huck embroidery originated in Sweden”

Update 12:34 Thursday 2/27

Look what just found at the library

Holiday Handmade Crawl

Sunday December 15 at

WILKINSBURG PA Train Station

Workshop Studios

WCDC Wilkinsburg Community Development Corporation

Meet Josie Martin
TOPTOWN Auto Maintenance

Hassle-Feee Car Care Delivered to You

TOPTOWN Tools at the Ready
Meet Alex and Emmalee
Stupid Stupid Studio
clarkmorelia.com Handmade Leather Goods
Wilkinsburg Train Station Historic Landmark

Built in 1916. Vacant for 50 years. Full Restoration completed in 2019.

Moon and Yarn Craft Room Brightens a Rainy Day

Bryanne opened the colorful Moon and Craft Room May 27, 2023. Look below and see her in the bright pink shirt, helping us find yarn and other fiber related items.

Today my friend Randi and I ventured into the North Hills and spent some delightful time in this happy space. Potholder looms and loops were on my shopping list!

Moon and Yarn Craft Room

1022 Perry Highway Pittsburgh PA 15237
Sock yarn in a variety of bases, even bamboo
Many gorgeous textures, colors and fibers

Colors that pop!
Bryanne was welcoming, knowledgeable and helpful
Coming soon October 29th Indie Knit and Spin in Aspinwall
Natural light in the Craft Room
Weaving a Shawl
Looms of all sizes and spinning wheels
What could I mix with this?
Everything you need to weave and spin, macrame, crochet and knit
So much to choose from
Stickers, Accessories for many crafts, Buttons, Fibers,Kits,
Potholder Looms and Loops,
Bryanne is headed to be a vendor at CAKEpalooza in Saugerties New York October 20th

A good friend created this deviled egg clock

Looking up

Last Monday morning, Laura, Roy snd I were shopping for baby gifts at the Pizazz Gift shop run by the Worthington Ohio Craft Guild (an Artists and Craftsmen’s Cooperative.) it’s the place to shop for unique handcrafted gifts.

This glass rotunda is in the center of the mall and the sun was out, the sky a beautiful blue not gray.

Handcrafted Cards

Happy Valentines Day card created by Marlene
(we share four grandchildren, )
Cards she sent to her daughter and family

Thank you for the beautiful card.

Month of May Stitched in Memory- Guest Blog

These photos are from May 1987, taken in Kentucky.  Sent by my good friend Joanne. We were so much younger then, we’re older than that now……

And a tribute to Phyllis George who passed May 14th.

Joanne, Phyllis, Ruth

Ruth – you and I reconnected as Army wives in Fort Knox, KY in 1986 after we both moved there from Germany, where we first met.  You taught me the art of smocking and we spent a lot of time together stitching beautiful outfits for our little girls.  Then we decided to make it a “cottage industry” and created our business Handsmocked in Kentucky.  We took special orders and sold our work in the  Kentucky Arts Council In Louisville … where we attracted the attention of Phyllis George (then wife of the Governor of Kentucky!) .

We had such fun and dreams with our little business, and then all of a sudden we were invited to Phyllis George’s home as a vendor for her Kentucky Derby celebration which featured Kentucky based artists!  What an adventure ….
33 years later I still have a lot of memories and a wardrobe of smocked dresses to hand down to some special little girl.  
My memory of Phyllis George was a gracious, giving woman who cared deeply about Kentucky artisans.   (And she wrote us a check for a handsmocked dress for her daughter.)

Joanne was able to go into her boxes of photos which are all labeled and put her hands on these photos.

Joanne even put her hands on our little brochure.  Her sister did the artwork.

Our daughters Laura and Anna at a tea party, sporting our smocking. This photo is in Germany where both girls were born.

If You Have a Cat, Crafting With Cat Hair

Did you know there was such a thing? I saw this book for sale at Target.

Crafting With Cat Hair. By Kaori Tsutaya, I’ve been to an art installation with dryer lint sculpture. Not Cat Hair. Yet.

Clearly not for anyone with a cat allergy.

I didn’t open it up to look inside but maybe next time. The price tag just under the book says Dog Shampoo ?

I thought to myself, who would love and use this book?

Here’s what google books says “Got fur balls?Are your favorite sweaters covered with cat hair? Do you love to make quirky and one-of-a-kind crafting projects? If so, then it’s time to throw away your lint roller and curl up with your kitty!Crafting with Cat Hair shows readers how to transform stray clumps of fur into soft and adorable handicrafts. … “

Google Books

Achoo!
Crafting With Cat Hair

Retro Macrame Pot Hanger Materials

This vintage book of directions for making Macrame Plant Hangers or rather Macrame Pot Hangers and this huge twine were in the donations my friend Donna gave to my art teacher friend Bob.

In the seventies, I never used such a thick rope but instead a thinner white cord and some wooden beads.

Macrame belts were holding up lots of bell bottom jeans when I was in college.

Do you or have you ever done macrame?

Who Remembers Bizarre Bazaar Items?

I have this old, approximately the 1960’s,  PATONS 65 cents pamphlet with knitting patterns for Bazaar Items.  Corn cob slippers, tea cozies, toilet roll covers and poodle bottle covers to name a few.  I see that the same booklet can be purchased on Ebay for about four bucks now.

Not sure if anyone still has a dolly or poodle sitting on top of their toilet tank with a spare roll of toilet paper hidden underneath.

Peruvian Folk Art on Walnut Street

These bright colors caught my eye as I walked by the storefront of La Feria on Walnut Street.

It’s a restaurant too.

Shot horizontally. Fingers crossed it doesn’t somersault.