This is Evelyn.
I imagine her to be quite regal and composed. She is the matriarch of her family, the one who keeps everything running smoothly, the one who still remembers “the way things used to be.” But don’t let her updo fool you—she has a mischievous side too!
And this is Liz.
She is Evelyn’s daughter. She is capable and bright, with a sweet spirit, a mother to young children, very busy. She is always at the height of fashion, even when throwing together a quick casserole for the neighbors who just had a new baby. And she loves to wear her pearls out for a night on the town.
These lovely ladies on linen (Oooh! Alliteration!) are part of a series I’m calling “She Wore Buttons for Pearls,” which is a phrase that has been in my head for many months now, since I first began brainstorming words and ideas for my blog name. It just had to become something, and there you have it. They’re stitched with perle cotton and mounted on simple foam board using the lacing method.
When I first started these pieces, I had no preconceived notions about who these ladies were, yet as I’ve worked on them and seen them together as a series, I’ve begun to read a story into them. Funny how some pieces just attach themselves to you, isn’t it?
At the moment, there is one more to this series, but I haven’t photographed her yet because I’m trying to work through a little fabric snafu. I’ll introduce her to you another time, once I’ve got that figured out.
In the meantime, perhaps I was just displaying some poor searching skills, but I found the available online instructions for mounting embroidery by lacing to be a bit lacking. Anyone fancy a tutorial? Let me know, and I’ll whip one up.
I love these works… I’m always drawn to buttons. I have an affinity with them that I should really blog about one of these days.
A tutorial would be lovely!
written on October 21st, 2009, at 12:59 amI love these! their simplicity and beauty is stunning!
And I, too, would love a tutorial on mounting the embroidered piece with the lacing on the back. As soon as I saw that picture, I thought, “ooh! I’d love to be able to do that!” :)
written on October 21st, 2009, at 9:53 amI love your ladies and the lacing method is so delicate and pretty. I would love a tutorial. It would be so much better than the fancy “hot-glue-gun” method that I have been doing. :)
written on October 21st, 2009, at 12:02 pmI love buttons. What a wonderful idea! These turned out lovely.
And the mounting you did on that looks wonderful. I’m still working the kinks out when I do projects like that. ;)
written on October 21st, 2009, at 3:14 pmOooh, I think these are fantastic! :) Really stylish and artistic, I love the fluid lines of the embroidery. Very exciting stuff!!
Tutorial would be fab – I’ve never even thought of mounting embroidery, it looks wonderful though!
written on October 21st, 2009, at 6:21 pmlovely ladies! will these ladies be in your shop?
needlecrafter.com has a tutorial for lacing embroidery onto foamboard and that is the tute i used last year when making some holiday gifties.
written on October 24th, 2009, at 3:20 pm[...] On Sunday my little guy had a fever, so I kept him at home while my husband and daughter went to church. Because the baby was sick, he ended up sleeping a good chunk of the morning, and I was granted the very rare opportunity to experience a totally quiet house at an hour when I was actually awake and energetic enough to accomplish things. And so, aha! There’s my third button girl! [...]
written on October 26th, 2009, at 12:58 pm