Textile Gardens

Garden Bouquets

Some years it seems as though spring takes a bit longer to arrive.  False promises are dashed by cold un-spring-like days.  This year we had, in Santa Fe, some lovely weather in early spring followed by cold days and heavy winds that brought much dust instead of rain.  Finally, it seems as if we are on the right track and folks are preparing their gardens, cleaning their yards and descending on garden stores and nurseries.

I, too, have planted a few flowers, but do admit I am generally not in the running for gardener of the year.  For those of you who live in apartments, on boats or are still shoveling snow I offer some flowering thoughts, flowers on textiles, that is.

Floral motifs have always been a predominant theme for textile design. Textiles from lace to embroideries and embellishments, from vintage to contemporary, from all ethnic groups, have floral displays of botanicals (real and sometimes imagined).

Today I present to you several books from my reference library which illustrate the various textile interpretations of floral design.

A  Needleworker's Botany, Heather S. Miller,

Fifty examples of early botanical art from the library of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society.

 Lace, Heather Toomer, B.T.Batsforf Ltd, London, 1989

A guide to identification of old lace types and techniques.

 Flowers of Silk and Gold, Sumru Belger Krody, The Textile Museum, Washington, DC, Merrill Publishers Limited, 2000

Four centuries of Ottoman embroidery

The Embroiderer's Flowers, Thomasina Beck, David and Charles, 1992

"A feast of inspiration for all lovers of embroidery".

William Morris Textiles, Linda Parry,Weidenfelf and Nicolson, London, 1983

"A comprehensive survey of the many original, colourful textiles produced by Morris & Co..  Included is a fully illustrated, definitive checklist of Morris & Co.'s patterns for printed textiles."

Opulent Textiles - The Schumacher Collection, Richard E. Slavin III, Crown Publishers, Inc., NY, 1992

"This exquisite full-color volume highlights the artistic creativity and high quality for which Schumacher fabrics have been known over the past hundred years."

Russian Textiles - Printed Cloth for the Bazaars of Central Asia, Susan Meller, Abrams, NY, 2007

"Gorgeous, printed cotton fabrics created and manufactured in Russia from about 1860-1960 specifically for export to Central Asia."

These are only a few from my collection.  There are hundreds of publications featuring textiles available for your reading enjoyment.  Visit your local library or bookstore for a touch of textile gardens.