Stur 08 II

Sturbridge 2008 Fun Report

Jean Contino, Coordinator of Crafts and Households, and Rebecca Nourse, Collections Manager at Old Sturbridge Village presented “Out of the Woods: Textile Designs Inspired by Nature,” a talk about artifacts from the Village collection which feature design elements inspired by nature. They did a fantastic job!! Wow, we really enjoyed seeing the many antique sewing tools, stencils, factory printed fabrics, quilts, stuffed work, and embroidery!

At left is Jean showing us a very fascinating quilt with numerous embroidered insects and animals. Interestingly, another quilt was discovered in England that is almost a duplicate of this unusual piece. The more we looked at it, the more embroidered critters we found.

The various insects and animals were those you would find in many different countries, which made it all the more intriguing.

Here’s Rebecca holding up a gorgeous antique quilt. We were all fascinated with the brilliant colors in the fabrics. Jean & Rebecca showed us an old catalog with samples of different cloths, dating around the late 1800’s. The samples were a surprise to most of us, as we just didn’t think of fabrics from that time period as being as intricate or brilliantly colored.

We also saw some great needlecases, etuis, and needlework tools, and learned about their use..

We saw beautiful examples of white work and learned how the various designs were produced from drawing to embroidery.

Since our retreat project featured Jackie’s acorn design, Jean and Rebecca brought with them many samples of the use of acorns and oak leaves in fabric and embroidery. Acorns were frequently featured as a symbol of our country -- from a little acorn a mighty tree grew....from our original 13 states a mighty nation grew.

We also saw some great sampler work!

It was a fantastic presentation!!! Thank you Jean & Rebecca!!!!

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