drawn thread and special memories

Today I had a lovely email conversation with one of my customers. She told me why she had decided to purchase two books: Ukrainian Drawn Thread Embroidery and Mountmellick Embroidery: Inspired by Nature.

I heard about you from a lady at my hairdressers. We have had the same appointment time for several months and chat while we have our hair done. We talk about our craft work and she mentioned that she does Hardanger – that is how she knew about you.

I told her about a friend of mine who does beautiful work and who had been wanting to do Mountmellick work, but was having trouble finding any books or teachers.

So, I Googled you and was delighted to find all the information on your site. As I was meeting my friend at our craft group that very afternoon, I printed off the information about your book and took it to her. Imagine my surprise in finding that she had borrowed a copy from the local Embroiderers’ Guild and was wondering how to purchase her own copy as she liked your book so very much.

Also, my curiosity led me to check out what ‘Merezhka’ was, and to my delight I found that it is drawn thread work. An elderly delightful Latvian friend, now deceased unfortunately, taught a small group of ladies this work and I really enjoyed it. Her work was exquisite.

Drawn thread work has a very special place in my heart as it brings back so many happy memories of my friend. So I’m looking forward to enhancing my skills and learning more.

I do apologise if I have rattled on, it seems amazing that this all started from a chance remark at the hairdressers.

Then later she told me more about the special lady who taught her drawn thread work.

My friend who taught me the drawn thread work, used to talk about the time when she was a displaced person in a POW camp in Europe after WW II, and how the ladies used to somehow obtain parachute silk from the guards and use this fabric to make underwear which they then embroidered and also did drawn thread work.

She showed us a chemise she still had all those years later and the work was exquisite – very minute stitches of course. She would use threads from other clothes or whatever she could find to do this and said that her embroidery helped her get through many dark moments.

A very special lady and even though she passed away several years ago – she was in her nineties – I still miss her. I can feel tears pricking my eyes as I type this, so it will be extra special for me to continue to build on what she had taught me.

Thank you J, for permission to share your story with the readers of my blog. It illustrates beautifully some of the ways that important embroidery is to many of us – a source of special memories and a help through difficult times.