Blended Embroidery

April 15, 2019
This winning craft guide from quilt artist Haggard (Embroidered Memories) offers help to creative-minded people wondering what to do with old family mementos. Rather than throw them out, Haggard encourages readers to rework these keepsakes into original pieces of art. “Suppose you had an old cutting board from your great-great-great grandmother Hannah in Ohio,” he posits, and with it “a piece of the coverlet that just barely escaped the flood of 1910.” This reflection on a piece’s significance marks the first step of a process that, proceeding by Haggard’s step-by-step instructions, can enable a faded artifact to become “a piece that tells a story you won’t want to forget.” The book includes patterns, supply lists, instructions for stitching and knotting, along with tips on choosing colors and textiles and working with ribbons, beads, laces, buttons, and even old photos. For the cutting board project, Haggard decorated one side with a tintype photo of Hannah set within the coverlet, and placed hand-dyed linen, colored to match the coverlet, on the other side. This comprehensive resource will leave readers with fresh ideas of how to take little bits of this-and-that and pull them together into a new form that celebrates past legacies with beautiful decor for the present.