Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Attic - Day 2

Saturday, Day 2!  We enjoyed a delicious breakfast at the Hyatt Place in Mesa.  All of our classes/lectures were held at this hotel - what a great place.  The staff was very friendly, rooms spacious and clean, and they served one of the best hotel breakfasts I have ever had!

Today was lecture day.  I realize not everyone would want to sit and listen to a lecture at a needlework retreat, but I enjoy learning about history and especially when it is needlework history!  Our day started with Lorraine Mootz.  Lorraine is a docent at the German Sampler Museum in Celle, Germany (sadly, this museum is closing soon.)


Lorraine is quite the character and I mean that in a good way!  She shared her knowledge of needlework with us, telling about the little accordion pleated pattern books (like the one we made Friday night) and then talked about marking samplers.  The pictures and the discussion were both interesting.

Vickie Jennett has a bonnet in her collection that has initials stitched in it.


From Lorraine we learned that those initials were stitched so that the owner would know the bonnet was theirs!  At this time period, the laundry was only done once or twice a year and consequently there would be a lot of laundry to do.  To ensure that each person in the family got their items of clothing back, they had to initial (and sometime number) them.


Lorraine also brought a couple of marking samplers with her from her collection.  We received the pattern for Marguerite Dumas as a gift for attending the weekend event.




Lorraine has published a book, Samplers and Designs:  Three Centuries of European Samplers, if you are interested in learning more.

Later Saturday afternoon, Lorraine also talked about decorative towels (also known as show towels or parade towels).  Vickie Jennett had brought one from her collection - I thought I had taken more pictures of it, but it looks like I only took one of the top of the towel.


These towels often hung on the walls or on a door and were rarely used to wipe one's hands; they were for "show".

We also heard from one other guest speaker, Joanne Martin Lukacher, the author of the new book, Imitation and Improvement:  The Norfolk Sampler Tradition.  If you like English samplers, you will enjoy this book.


Joanne talked about the samplers that she researched while writing this book.  All beautiful samplers!


After absorbing all this new information about historical needlework, we ended our day with an open house at the Attic; more shopping and a light supper.  Another perfect day has come to an end.

13 comments:

Giovanna said...

Wow, that all sounds fascinating - what a great event. Marguerite Dumas is very pretty.

Margaret said...

Sigh. Sounds lovely. Did you stitch while you listened to the lectures? Or was there too much to look at to do that? Thanks for sharing with us. I'm enjoying my vicarious symposium!

Laura said...

Talk about a PERFECT DAY!!! I would love to have a lecture like that!!! The marking sampler you received a chart for is simply stunning!!!!!!! How exciting!

Mrs. DillyDally said...

What a wonderful opportunity for you! It sounds wonderful! And I agree, I love learning all the history around and behind needlework! Looking forward to your posts...as always! Hugs!

Chocolates4Breakfast (Terri Malinovich) said...

Sounds like you are taking full advantage of all the wonderful offerings at the retreat!

The Inspired Stitcher said...

I'd love to have heard these lectures. It sounds like heaven to me! Then to top off the day with a shopping trip, it couldn't get much better than that!

Michele said...

wow, looks like you had a wonderful time ... and learned something :)

Nicola said...

Thank you for sharing Cathy, I really wish I could attend such events, I know that I would enjoy them.

Chris said...

It is wonderful to see your posts about this retreat. I really was hoping to attend this year but with my job change I was just not able to swing it.
Thanks so much for sharing.

Siobhán said...

It looks like such an amazing time! Thanks for sharing the pictures.

Katrina said...

I just love Jean's retreats!!!!!! Looks wonderful, I hate that I couldn't go :-(. Maybe next year.

Ellen said...

It was so much fun to hear about the retreat. Thanks for the photos and descriptions.

I was especially nice to see a photo of my friend, Lori. It has been way too long since I've seen her.

Ellen said...

Thank you for sharing your retreat experiences through photos and your written descriptions. It sounds like a wonderful time!

I was particularly happy to see a photo of my friend, Lori Mootz. It has been way too long since we've seen each other.