Needle Nerds

While I was out running errands today I decided to stop at Goodwill and see if I could find any vintage sheets for quilting. Well, I didn't find any of those but I did come across this gorgeous hand embroidered red silk kimono/bath robe for just $4.99! I was wandering around feeling a bit sad about not getting any instant gratification in the vintage sheet department when I noticed something shiny and red out of the corner of my eye. As soon as I was able to verify that the stitching was indeed done by hand, I picked that sucker off the rack and commenced with the coveting all the way up to the register.

See that bit of white floss on the left crossing over the green of the bird's feathers?
That's what it looks like when you "carry" a thread from one place to another on the back of your canvas
without taking individual stitches in between the areas or stopping and starting with a new thread.

 

If you're out thrifting, at an estate sale, or just admiring a piece you don't know a lot about, you can verify that it's been done by hand if you turn to the reverse and check for carried threads or knots. Old school stitchers will most likely have not used knots to finish off a piece but I must admit that I do (GASP! more on that later) because, well, I'm paranoid like that.

In other somewhat unrelated news, I'm honored to have made it into Rachel's Top 9 picks for the Blogger's Pillow Party—how cool is that?!

P.S. For all you other needle nerds out there, did you read about the hand embroidered veil and hand-worked lace on the royal wedding dress that folks from the Royal School of Needlework accomplished? I love that this type of technical information was made available and that her dress was classy right down to the methods and materials used for it! Read more here if you tend to geek out about this kind of stuff like I do (it's ok, we can be needle nerds together).