Considering ideas for a 250th Anniversary Quilt to
mark this year we've looked at the state flowers & birds
fashion of the mid-20th century at this post:
Re-working this embroidery style a century later is only
going to appeal to the nostalgic---of which you might be one.
The aesthetic problem is the datedness of the look. Outline embroidery
was so popular from about 1880 to 1980 that it defined the craft back then.
From Crazy Quilts & Redwork in the 1880s through
the fashion for state flowers, etc.
Laura Wheeler design for State Flowers
The idea of pictorials outlined in thread replaced the centuries-old technique of filling in the shapes with a variety of stitches.
Early-18th-century filled embroidery
Embroiderers learned a number of filling stitches.
A new era of sharing pattern began about 1880 with a couple of innovations in printing.
One: Printers were able to illustrate inexpensive publications.
Page from Peterson's Magazine showing
typical late-19th-century embroidery design in outline
form. Did the editor expect you to fill in the butterfly?
Two: Designers like Briggs & Company could print a new hot transfer method in their publications.
Transfer patterns from 1913
Heat released the inked outline.
Read much more about this technology at Mrs. Depew:
Modern Priscilla 1925
At first the outlines were meant to be filled in with fabric or stitches
but embroiderers soon found an outlined chain stitch or running stitch attractive.
I heard Ginny Gunn explain the whole fashion in a couple of sentences that went something
like this: "Limitations in printing in the 1880s dictated the illustrator show an outline with
instructions to trace the image and fill it in. Of course, they just traced
it and outlined it in embroidery---no filler."
Typical outline embroidered in a small, neat chain stitch
Another example of commercial needlework shaping style.
Advice to be ignored in the Omaha World-Herald 1938
Bright colored threads of the time defined the look as did comics
illustration style. One did not mix those threads as in combining
two or three of different shades.
That outline look replaced two techniques. One---traditional
filling stitches. Two---Applique plus Embroidery
TRADITIONAL FILLING STITCHES
The Kensington stitch was a long and short filler stitch taught
by the influential Royal School of Art Needlework, located in Kensington, London.
Satin Stitch---one length
APPLIQUE PLUS EMBROIDERY
I'm thinking birds from Quilt Journeys with variations of filled applique stitches....
Simple shapes, which is where I need to start.
The second style advocated by the Kensington school:
Combination of appliqued fabric plus embroidery
A style that became a characteristic of the Glasgow School of Embroidery
Classic Stickley gingko pillow design repro by Dianne Ayers combining
applique plus embroidery
Ann MacBeth design
Glasgow School of Embroidery
Tea Cozy with appliqued leaves & florals outlined in a satin stitch
po(fj!!~~60_3.jpg)
Trickling down....
Combination of Morris Muse fabrics and a neat, contrasting chain
stitch around each shape.
Sue Spargo has led a small revolution in taste using combined applique & embroidery.
Her applique fabrics are primarily wool but she also uses plain and print cottons.
One could use all those state flower drawings with a filled or applique + embroidery technique.
A Laura Wheeler Sunflower appliqued with
decorative stitching.
EQ8 with Quilt Journeys Add On
It's all a design experiment. I think I'd be better off using the simpler state flowers and birds from Quilt Journeys. Here's a Columbine for Colorado.
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