Anne Knox Arthur Embroidery Book

Annotation

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. Most people have a superstition that in knowledge of a multitude Of stitches lies the whole mystery Of needle work. This is emphatically not the case. There really is no mystery about stitches they are but the letters Of the needleworker's alphabet, and the words Of her lan guage - to be used according to her Own ideas. One may embroider poems; another may embroider prayers and praises for her church; another may beautify a fair woman's garment or sing a little song in stitches for a baby's robe; yet another may be like a treatise on sur gery, repairing and restoring that which has been damaged. But needlework does not exist for the stitches. It is the stitches Which - as they are well or ill-used express the worker, and, if she is a wise Worker, she can find out for herself most Of the stitches she needs. Nor is it necessary to be at great expense in needlework, indeed, for those who take it up as a recreative craft half the interest may lie in the fact that no material is too common or too homely to be made into something fitting and, therefore, beautiful - since the truest art is to make a thing pleasing to the eye and yet entirely suited to the purpose.