A Tidy Housewife

Just to be clear, the title of this post does not refer to me.  In fact, two of my former students posted a link on Facebook that they wanted to bring to my attention.  I won't reproduce the photo here, but it is G-rated, so no fear about following the link.  What can I say?  I resemble that remark!

It's sew-n-tell Friday again - how time flies!  I've not done a passel of quilting this week.  My daughter had H1N1 flu and was home for the best part of a week, and on Wednesday my husband had arthroscopic knee surgery to clean out some bits and pieces that have been bothering him. So I've been wearing my nurse's uniform (not the sexy kind!) and, with writing reference letters for students' scholarship applications and various other work responsibilities, all I've really managed to do is cut my squares for the Values Quiltalong, but at least that is progress.  And I did do a bit of quilting, just a touch, to finish up my housewife.  And there is the reference to the title of this post.

A housewife, or hussif, is just an archaic term for a sewing kit.  I made one from the cross-stitched storks that I showed last week.  I used the basic logic from this tutorial, but chopped and changed as needed.

P.S. Does anyone know why my photos, which I add by pasting in the html from Flickr, are not behaving all of a sudden? They are now cut off on the right hand side, which is not the case in the original (click through to Flickr to see the whole photo). What gives? Fixed!

100th Anniversary

It's the 100th anniversary of Beth Israel, our synagogue, in 2010.  In honour of this milestone, members of our congregation took on the task of stitching new covers for our six Torahs.  Custom canvases were painted by an artist in Toronto, and the work was farmed out to various community members.  The covers were unveiled on Simchat Torah last week.  Here they are.  Mine is the last one on the right.


Some intrepid souls stitched an entire canvas themselves, but others did half a canvas.  Like me.  I did the bottom half of this one; a picture of my half is shown below.  It has Jerusalem on the bottom and a tent representing the home, with shabbat candles shining inside.  The full cover shows names of the Matriarchs, Sarah, Rachel, Rebecca and Leah, forming an arc above the tent, and Jerusalem on the top.  Paternayan wool was used to stitch everything but the centre motif, which was stitched in perle cotton.  Although it was a standard needlepoint canvas, the cover was worked in cross-stitch, to add stability and longevity to the piece.  I tell myself that's why it took twice as long to do.

Only I wish it had taken merely twice as long!  I am ashamed to say that I had this in my house for four years before I finally completed my half.  My husband was so tired of going to synagogue Board meetings and hearing the Torah covers committee report, where my name was always called out as one of the stitchers who was still working on her canvas.  But all's well that end's well - it was finished just in time for the launch of our anniversary year.

Friday Finish and a Shout Out to the Antique Pattern Library

Storks, originally uploaded by Shadrach Meshach & Abednego.

It's quite a modest finish this time. I'm sharing this little bit of stitchery. It's a small piece that I'm going to turn into a needlebook/housewife, which is something I desperately need. The skein of embroidery floss is there to show scale. I got the pattern from an undated Moderne Stickvorlagen pattern available for download at the Antique Pattern Library.  If you don't know it, go check it out.  It's an amazing resource for embroidery, beading, lacemaking, cross-stitch, knitting, crochet, and other, more arcane, needlework.  It contains scanned copies of original patterns and charts from the 1800s and later.  The quality varies, but most are usable.  Personally, I'm most in love with the amazing art deco charts, but I also liked delving into the 1889 book from Butterick Publishing about using crepe and tissue paper, and the 1945 knitting patterns from the American Red Cross on making important garments for refugees and for wounded soldiers, such as the cap for a bandaged head, and the walking cast toe sock.  Awesome!  And even more awesome: FREE.  Major kudos to those women from the APL who scanned and in many cases redrew damaged charts so that they could be used.

Don't forget to go look at the other Friday Sew-n-Tellers - you can find them at Amy's.  You'll see some beautiful things!

And if you're in the market for a giveaway, go take a gander at True Up; she's giving away some gorgeous Kiyohara prints.  I'm drooling, but firmly expect my "never win" force field to protect me yet again!