Collar Design in Bulgarian Embroidery

       I am furnishing you a pretty design today. the very name of which will call to your mind the peasantry of the Balkan Mountains who are noted for their remarkable skill in completing some of the handsomest embroidery of historical beauty. It is their aim and delight to use a great many colors, intermingling them in a manner so clever that one color blends like a shadow into its adjoining part.
      For this pattern I suggest for the center pieces, or floral motif, the different shades of blue, ranging it from pale blue to a china or phenol blue, or begin the wheel center with medium blue and graduate the tones to a navy blue. In the stem and leaf portions use dark leaf green in outline, then a lighter green for leaves, with a very pale tip-green. The butterfly can be worked in Delf blue with wing spots of blue, two colors, and a mere touch of green. Miniature triangles on collar border should be worked in green. Fill the notches in satin-stitch of dark green floss, and border with a scallop of dark blue. I have offered this color scheme because the colors, as a rule, wash well.
      All portions are in solid effect, with the exception of wheels, made with Battenberg stitches. The pattern can be developed in all white, but I feel sure you will like a color effect to create a decided novelty in your finished collar. Sincerely yours, Winifred Worth

Restored illustration of collar design.

Old-Fashioned Embroidery Designs for Plate Doilies

Satin, outline, eylet and button-hole stitches.

       These designs may be worked in either solid or eyelet. Detail drawings, show method of working.
      There are two ways to apply the designs to the material upon which you wish to work them.
      If your material is sheer--such as handkerchief linen, lawn, batiste, and the like--the simplest method is to lay the material over the design and with a well pointed pencil draw over each line.
      If your material is heavy secure a piece of transfer or impression paper. Lay it face down upon this, then draw over each line of the paper design with a hard pencil or the point of a steel knitting needle. Upon lifting the pattern and transfer paper you will find neat and accurate impression of the design upon your material. 
      There are two points to observe in this simple process if you would execute it satisfactorily. One is to see that your material is level--cut and folded by a thread--and that your design is placed upon it evenly at every point. 
      The second is, when placed accurately secure the design to the material with thumb tacks or pins, so it cannot slip during the operation.
      Do not rest your hand or fingers upon any part of the design while you are transferring.

 

Historic embroidery pattern depicting daisies.

Historic embroidery pattern depicting wheat stalks.

A Poppy Design for A Round Table

       The floral design pictured you can readily transfer to linen, leather or burlap by inserting a sheet of carbon, or tracing paper between the design and fabric, then going over all the lines of the design with a stylus or sharp pencil.
      You will then find the lines on the fabric distinct enough to follow in your embroidery. 
      This historic pattern has a lovely all-over design using poppies, their buds and leaves. Victorians loved to display a decorative vase with a bouquet, prominently in the center of a table covering like the one included here.
       Use brilliant reds, oranges and pinks to emphasize the design in your own version!

A draft of the historic poppy pattern.

Embroider Butterflies of Brilliant Hue

    Bright colored butterflies bring a feeling of joy and sunshine to one's work, and these dainty little creatures are charming in flower pieces or as separate motifs on table mats, curtains, dressing-table runners, and other household articles.
      Butterflies are so easy to work that no one need fear to attempt them, especially with the help afforded by the varied selection on the color samples shown below, and the chart, herewith, giving the direction for the stitches. These butterflies, also the dragonfly and bees, are originally from Weldon's Transfers (1900), you may reproduced tracings from the photo below in order to stitch butterflies similar to those embroidered at the turn of the last century.
      The wings are all worked on the same principle; the markings first in long and short stitch (or for the more definite spots and bands, in satin-stitch), and stem-stitch for veinings. All stitches should be directed towards the body. Between the markings the wings must be filled in with long and short stitch directed from their edge towards the body.
      For the body, long and short stitch can be worked lengthways, or rows of satin-stitch fitted one into the other, as shown on several of the specimens. The long and short stitch can be continued on the head, or this can be worked in satin-stitch. One or two little stitches of red or yellow, or some fairly bright color, are all that are required for the eyes.
      Stem-stitch or split-stitch gives a fine line for the antennae, which are tipped with one or two satin-stitches in the same direction as the stem or split-stitches. 

 

Color enhance reproduction of sample silk butterflies, bees and dragonfly by Weldon's Transfers, 1900.
This embroidery is done with fine silk threads.

 

 

Watch Malina embroider a silk butterfly using a satin stitch.

A nostalgic cross stitch by Helen Grant

       This design by Helen Grant includes: old-fashioned children (the boy with a hoop and girl with bonnet), birds, roses, peacocks, butterfly and cat. Find more patterns by her in the links below.

• The Crisscross Kids Cross Stitch
• Learn more about needlework samplers by young girls
• A Sampler from 1927 by Helen Grant 

        The text on this needle point pattern reads:

"My portion is not large indeed, 
But then how little do I need? 
For Nature's calls are few-
In this the art of living lies:
To want no more than my suffice,
And make that little do. 
wrought by "

How to crochet a cross bookmark...

        I received this crocheted cross many years ago as a gift. It was made by an elderly lady who was bedridden near the end of her life. She could pray, sleep, eat a little and crochet. If you would like to learn how to make one just like it or similar... follow the links below to several crafters at YouTube.

"His Name Is Jesus" from my Bible Art Journal online here.

 

Where to Learn How to Crochet Crosses and Other Bookmarks:

• Crochet Cross Bookmark Tutorial from Pora Pora Crochet
  
• How to crochet the simply daisy bookmark pattern from This Pixie Creates
• Granny Square Crochet from Rich Textures Crochet
• Chatherine Wheel Bookmark Crochet Pattern from Rich Textures Crochet and Making Waves

Simple Cross Stitch Patterns for Baby

       The historical Cross stitch patterns illustrated below are very suitable for decorating articles which belong to young children; for instance, the row of pigs could be embroidered on a bib, or, with the addition of some other animals, might form a border that could be applied to a nursery table cover or curtain.
      A rabbit sitting between two plants might be used just as they are for decorating some small article, or they could be repeated to form a border design, and in that case other animals might be introduced as well as the rabbit.
      The two borders and the flower sprigs could be embroidered on any article for which cross stitch is a suitable decoration. The sprigs could be adapted to a collar design, repeated to form a border, or used as an all-over spot pattern. Any plant with a definite outline can be translated into cross stitch, and if it were small enough, could be added to these designs to decorate a spring themed baby quilt, a small sampler to hang in a nursery or to hand stitch a few decorative pillows for a rocker located in the cozy corner of the baby's nursery.

Vintage needlepoints of flowers in baskets

      "This little bag for holding money or jewels is most useful to any woman blessed with such desirable possessions, and one as pretty as this would appeal to any woman of fastidious tastes as the daintiest and most useful of all simple presents to be made by the clever fingers of an artistic friend." 

      This antique needlepoint pattern of violets in a basket appeared in the Washington Times, Sunday, April 17, 1904.

 

Three lovely designs of cross stitch flowers in baskets.

 

      "No. 718 is a design for embroidering baskets of flowers in cross stitch style. The large basket is five and one-quarter inches in height by five and three-quarters in width; the smaller baskets are four and one-half inches in height by four and one-quarter in width. Transfers for one large and two small baskets are given here.       In the pattern, all the stitches are crosses but, in the above illustration, some are made single and some fancy as a suggestion for color. The single stitches in the smaller design represent the baskets, the crossed stitches leaves and the fancy stitches flowers, with a few single stitches at the center for darker coloring. In the larger design, the single stitches represent the basket, the crossed stitches the leaves and bow knots and the fancy stitches flowers. As the flowers are conventionalized, any preferred colors can be used.
      The window pane method is perhaps the simplest and is particularly successful when the material is thin such as batiste, lawn, or handkerchief linen, the best plan is to pin the sheet of paper and the material together an hold them up against the window pane and with a sharp pencil trace the design on the fabric, or else lay the material on the pattern on top of a table or other hard surface, and carefully trace the design with a well pointed pencil. The design may also be transferred to heavy material by using a piece of transfer or carbon paper, to be placed between the pattern and cloth, using a sharp pointed pencil to secure a clean line."

Easter bunny and rooster cross stitch patterns

Cross Stitch Motif for Towels, Children's Items and Linens etc...

      Birds and rabbits are much used for cross stitch motifs on children's clothing and linens. The work may be done by laying a piece of canvas over the linen and counting the stitches of the design on the squares of canvas, then when the design is filled in with cross stitch, the canvas is pulled out, thread by thread. An easier way is to transfer the pattern to your linen with impression paper. All the stitches which run in one direction should be worked first and then crossed by those which run in the opposite direction. A good cotton to use is the long skein mercerized cotton, which is twisted very tightly.