PIECEWORK November-December 2013

This issue of PieceWork features a variety of needlework patterns and stories focused on myriad treasures hidden everywhere, from museums to attics. Whether two blocks away or as far away as India, these stories will captivate your mind and needleworking hands!

The feature articles of this issue immerse you in tales about needlework treasures both cultural and familiar:

• Author Mary Lycan’s searches on a historical society’s website resulting in the discovery of Clara Barrows’s knitted mittens from about 1875.
• Lily Chin introduces her family’s traditional knitted Chinese baby carrier (meitai) and provides instructions for knitting your own.
• Mary Bush discovers numerous Grecian embroidered pieces from the 1920's at a small museum on the island of Leadathat.
• Cynthia Harvey Baker embarks on a quest to find the “oldest piece of cotton cloth in the world.”
  
• Veronica Patterson recounts a 1922 German immigrant family's story about their shawl and quilt that is now in the Loveland, CO Museum/Gallery.
  
• Mary Dickinson Bird explores how two of vintage needlework magazines encouraged young girls learn embroidery skills.
• Kathy Augustine uncovers the needlework precision behind the fashionable garb of the fabulous Flapper Era
  

Recreate history and keep the traditions alive with 7 needlework projects based on the feature articles!

Included in this issue are projects for:

• Clara Barrow's Mittens to knit
  
• Kitchen Towel to stitch for beginning embroiderers and kid embroiderers alike
• Fox traveling bag to crochet and cross-stitch
  
• Chinese silk baby carrier to knit
• Karsaniko coaster to embroider
• First lady Ida Mc Kinley's slippers to Crochet
• Gladys's washcloth to knit