I love embroidery, it is great to relax a busy mind: 50 beautiful colors of DMC embroidery floss, counting a grid, no thinking. And it results in something nice. That is…. A long time ago I started with a Biedermeier sample of 50 x 65 cm with a big flower bouquet and an alphabet, a pattern once bought by Burda. When the bouquet was finished and I had to start with the letters I started to doubt. The alphabet made the embroidery really like a sample; but leaving it empty was no option. In that case I would be I stuck with a piece of cloth with only flowers and what to do with it? I asked my friends and got some nice ideas, from cupboard panel to back piece of a jeansjacket (although it would be a sin to ruin hundreds of hours of work with one well placed bird dropping…) One friend said: “just hang it in your room, ‘cause it is nice”. It is true, but just the flowers… My loved one who is also supposed to look at it, advised me embroider one of the funny rhymes we learned during our holidays in Austria. While tracking in the mountains of Grossarltal we saw local embroidery: white wall hangings with embroidered texts. The Gstanzln are rhymes of four sentences or more, that the old people - only the guys - used to sing just got fun or on special occasions. Mostly the rhymes are funny and mockingly, easily to remember because they…rhyme. This was a good idea!
“Je höher die Alm,
desto strenger der Wind,
Je schöner das Dirnderl,
desto klaner die Sünd!”
Translated it goes like: How higher the alps, how harder the wind; how nicer the girl, how smaller the sin ;-)
And than I have to embroider the funny text of the Gstanzln - a nice challenge…. The letters of the original patterns are only capital letters and way to big. After spending some time on the internet, the ‘treasures of granny’ came to mind. My grandmother had to do a lot of gentle work when she was young, just like the other girls of here generation. She preferred to play the piano, but sewing, knitting and embroidery was a must. She always kept some tools, stamps and booklets that I loved as a child, and I still do. The Alphabete für die Stickerin; Buchstaben, Monogramme, Ziffern und Ornamente, nach gezählten Fäden zu sticken und Muster mit Bausen für Weiss-Stickerei, published by Therese de Dillmont around 1900 is a cute booklet with diagrams and transfers of monograms, etc.
The box with Schablonen für Wäsche-Stickerei I loved the most with its nice and shiny copper plates with elegant calligraphy, a porcelain paintbox, a leporello-book with a manual. I think it also dates from around 1900. Why shouldn’t I use these treasures? It will give my flower embroidery, besides the quote from a great holiday, even more value. I made my mind up very quickly with letters to use. But the grid and letters are very tiny in this booklet… But Long live Photoshop!
I scanned the letters from the Alphabete für die Stickerin - tables 12 and 13, and with Photoshop I cut and paste the rime on an embroidery grid I copied from the internet. I printed the pattern of an A3 sheet so I can see every detail.
Although, every now and then something black and hairy is asking for attention..... But I will finish this embroidery no matter how cute the cat!
