Antique needlework

I agree... easier to move the fabric if it's stretched taut in a frame or hoop.

 

Just a quick note - having done free-hand machine embroidery, it is not easy to do well - when you drop the feed-dogs, you're on your own and it is, as already mentioned, essentially painting (or drawing on a simpler level) with thread, takes real talent to produce a piece as detailed and well-done as this one. The Singer connection, documented with Morgen's clip, just makes it all the more interesting to an old seamstress like me...

~Cheryl

 

Thanks, Cheryl. If you see a video on it, let me know. I need to see it to understand. Also, do you think my horse was done with an electric machine? Those dates I put in the Sat. 5:19 PM post are copy and paste. Seems like they had the "practical" one a year after the picture was dated. Does that mean she did it on a hand driven machine? Or is my memory right in remembering a treadle driven machine someone in my family used?

Finally found the word I wanted - TREADLE, not peddle.

 

It's just a standard lock-stitch, but believe she would have done your piece on a treadle machine, as both hands would have been required for guiding the fabric. It is dated 1888, and typically, a piece would be signed with the year finished - Singer didn't introduce their electric machine until 1889, and feel sure if she were demonstrating their new machine, they would have advertised it...

There are quite a few videos out there, but here's a relatively short one that should give you an idea of how it's done:


~Cheryl

 

Bakersgm, Moreotherstuff, Pat, Figtree, and all. Thanks for every piece of help I could have asked for.

MORGEN! And the cherry on top!!!

Cheryl, thank you for the video. It's about what I imagined. I agree it's much faster than hand stitching once you're set up with your cloth on which is the outline to follow. But I must admit my mind is trying to block it out. Guess I just can't accept the time, and precision required to complete the project. I stubbornly prefer to picture a lady working with thread and needles as a relaxation from a hard day. Evening after evening after evening for a year or so.

Yeah, OK, I warned you up front. That’s me.

And now I’ll offer the last piece I’ve been waiting for. Asked my daughter LAST Saturday. By Tuesday I had given her enough leeway because she did have company over the weekend. Then left a voice mail Weds. AM with a big harrumph!!! Was going to call again this AM and let her know she was disinherited. But luckily found the pic in an e-mail she had sent Weds and I had left buried in the normal daily over-batch.

Pretty much as I recalled as far as the two hunks of wood attached on the back, but forgot about all the tape which was just put on to keep out any dust. So still don’t know how the wood is attached. But it appears to be adequate to prevent any infestation of unwanted insects.

“If it ain’t broken don’t try to fixit .” That’s one last mystery that will remain unsolved. I’M NOT GOING TO CHECK INSIDE.





I just cancelled my $29.95 trial subscription to NewspaperARCHIVE.com.

Their coverage is very limited. Plus they have ONLY full pages from the newspaper archives and can ONLY send the whole page. For a fee of $29.95 each. And you don’t know until checkout that there is a shipping fee of $15.00 per page. Sorrrreeee!

Any better ones out there you can recommend?

All you folks are too good to be true. But you always are.

 

Awesome outcome, y'all!

 

I've had a fair amount of success finding old stuff just by using Google Books. It's not 100%, but things come up often enough that I think it's always worth searching.