A little bit of history

How can you not covet a book with the subtitle: 'Being a Textbook on Design and Technique'? And colour plates in lieu of glossy pages? And an unused book plate that is "a work of great beauty and considerable artistic merit" by "Mr. W. P. Barrett" who has "designed book plates for an imposing list of Kings and Queens"?

I came across just such a book, well technically it's a textbook – Embroidery & Needlework by Gladys Windsor Fry – on a recent trawl through a gem of a second-hand store called Books and Bygones. The illustrations suckered me in completely, as did the extensive list of stitches. I've already found a few that are new to me.

Naturally, I wanted to find out more about the author. But a Google search doesn't reveal much about the person, only about the book. Does anyone know anything about Gladys Windsor Fry? I'd like to know more about her life. Apparently the edition I have was printed around 1936, and the next edition was printed about a decade later. The only other info I can glean is that Gladys possibly did paintings or artists' renditions as well.

Either way, I'm feeling rather smug about my find and looking forward to trying out some new stitches.

PS. You can see some different pics from the book over on Moonsilk Stitches.

Colour contention

So we've been living in Port Elizabeth now for about 10 days – not in our own place yet but working on it. In the meanwhile, we're getting into the swing of things in a smaller coastal city, which for me on the stitching front started with a trip to the Spring exhibition of the local Diaz Quilters' Guild.

All the visitors were asked to pick their favourite quilt, make a note of the number on a slip of paper and place it in the box on their way out. The idea was that the quilt with the most number of votes would win the viewer's choice award for the exhibition.

I duly took note of each of the quilts that stood out for me, and made my choice. But while doing so, it struck me just how much colour plays a part in liking or disliking a particular piece of work.

Take purple, for example. It's taken me a long time to come around to this colour, and still only certain shades appeal to me. So when I came to a mainly purple king-size bed quilt, I automatically wanted to dismiss it. But for once I forced myself to look beyond the colour choice and it was actually quite a nice design.

It got me to thinking how many other good designs I've missed out on simply because the colour choices didn't appeal to me. And how many times my own designs have been passed over because of the colours I've chosen to embroider them in.

No one consciously chooses to like or dislike a colour, though. It's just one of those things. But I'll be looking twice in future, after this little reminder that a colour scheme may just be detracting from great design.