A square patchwork quilt with 25 appliquéd patches featuring flowers, birds, cornucopias, and a ship on a quilted white background. All around the quilt is a zigzagging green leaf and red flower border.
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Decorating with Quilts and Patchwork

by Laura Grey No Comments Share this  

Patchwork is an art form born out of economic necessity. People of many cultures reused fabric scraps to save money and scarce resources. Patched clothing and patchwork quilts provided both warmth and beauty. Nowadays, decorating with quilts and patchwork is more often a style choice than an economic need. Antique and vintage quilts are highly […]

Brightly colored and heavily patterned embroidered Indian fabric. Small round mirrors and pom-poms are also stitched onto the fabric.
Care & Cleaning Q&A

Caring for Textile Arts

by Laura Grey No Comments Share this  

Q: My dad was a costume designer who loved textile arts. He collected fabrics and needlework from all over the world. I have boxes full of amazing textiles now, but some are pretty delicate. I’d love to enjoy them and put them up around my house, but I don’t want to hurt them, and could […]

Detail of a traditional Kazakh rug embroidered with stylized floral and leaf patterns in chainstitching. The swirling vines and flowers are stitched in red, yellow, green, white, pink, and blue crewel wool on a black background.
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Decorating with Needlework

by Laura Grey No Comments Share this  

Decorative needlework has been used to add beautiful details to clothing and upholstered furnishings for millennia. Embroidered table and bed linens were de rigueur for fancy folk. Needlepoint or petit point pillows or rugs have long been signifiers of taste, elegance, and wealth. Cross-stitch samplers showed girls’ needlework skills, which made them look refined and […]