In victorian times, a lady's needlework was a mark of her gentility. Today we can create our own masterpieces. Gradually, as the economy suffered greater and greater stress during the Depression, stitchers lost much of their leisure time and extra money it took to create ornamental needlework. Instead of stitching purely decorative projects it became things for home improvement. Thus started a trend to delicate embroidery stary on baby garments, nightgowns, and shirts. Preserving the role of needlework in our society is of utmost importance to many of us. There are encouraging signs that handwork techniques are not fading. I find the skills have skipped a generation but rather than learning at Mothers knee, todays stitchers are seeking out the techniques themselves. As we move away from the materialist mood of the late 80's more and more people are coming to appreciate handmade things, objects of beauly they made themselves. I can imagine our great-grandmothers and great- great-grandmothers taking the same quiet pleausre in needlework that we're learning to do.

    I've enjoyed little quiet time this summer but continue to steal the moment where ever possible. I stitched the stylish handbag accessory. A compact mirror pouch which I plan on giving my granddaughter this christmas. This was in April's CrossStitcher. As they say in their book "folksy look thats trendy from its retro colours down to the funky mirror." I quite agree. I love the birds and how easily it stitched up. Quite a few 1/2 stitches that make it look so perfect. A sign of the trend towards stitching something nice and useful at the same time. I'm excited abou fall coming and more time it will give me to stitch but hate to see the cold weater and snow. There are more projects I want to do than time to do them so deciding which ones is going to be hard. So I invite you to join me and share your stitching. I look forward to seeing and hearing about the choices you have made.