Janet's Lovely Huswif

Janet G., who lives in a little village in the center of England, recently sent me some photos of her completed Mrs. Waddelow's Huswif.  She did a beautiful job with both the stitching and the assembly.  I'm particularly smitten with the tiny red and white checked fabric she chose for the huswif binding and the gathered pocket on the inside.  Janet chose a larger count linen than what I used on my model, but she said she was easily able to adapt the huswif lining to fit her linen.

Janet wrote, I love stitching on yellow fabric, so I bought a fat quarter bundle of cotton print fabrics on Ebay, in various shades of lemon yellow with pink/red flowers and fruits on them. I then chose some yellow 28 count Permin evenweave from my favourite online shop, called www.sewandso.co.uk. That was the easy part. I wanted to do the stitching in a darkish purply red hand dyed thread, but there are no bricks and mortar embroidery shops near me, so I had to choose online.

The first thread I bought was too brown, when I actually received it. So next I ordered Crescent Colours’ Ruby Slippers. But when I started to stitch with it, the variegations in the thread just seemed too predictable, with not enough variations. I’m sure it’s great when used on the correct project, but this wasn’t it. Before I’d got too far into this project, I had to choose something else, so I settled for a Thread Gatherer shade called ‘In the burgundy’.

This project was quick to do, and very enjoyable to stitch. I am really pleased with how this huswif has turned out, and especially the little needlebook, which is so tiny and sweet!

Perhaps some of you remember Janet's Ackworth Friendship Book that I showed you on February 23, 2012.  Janet decided to honor her female ancestors by stitching their initials on the book pages.  That was such a clever idea!

Thank you, Janet, for sharing your photos of another wonderful project you have created!  And just think--since your huswif is larger than mine, you have room for more needlework necessities!  That's always a good thing, isn't it?