Quaker Hornbooks from Minnesota

Recently Cathy B. from Minnesota sent me a photo and a wonderful article about the Quaker Hornbooks her needlework guild did as several workshops.

Here is what Cathy wrote, During the months of July, August, and September, our program for the Evening Counted Thread group with the Needlework Guild of Minnesota focused on Hornbooks.  At our first meeting in July, we learned about the history of Hornbooks and how they were used by school children.  Much of the information that was shared was taken from the book "A Little History of The Horn-book" written by Beulah Folmsbee and published in 1942.  Our group learned that Hornbooks typically included the alphabet in lower-case, the alphabet in upper-case, the vowels, sometimes numbers, and the Lord’s Prayer.  We also looked at pictures of Hornbooks that were obtained from Pinterest and other internet sources.  We learned that Hornbooks were made out of different materials:  wood, ivory, metal, leather and that they could be very plain to quite elaborate.

In conjunction with our lesson on Hornbooks, we decided to work as a group on Ellen’s "Quaker Hornbook".  The kits, which included the wooden hornbook and two design options were distributed at the July meeting and the stitchers provided their own linen and thread.  It was fun to see the different color choices that each stitcher selected for their own Hornbook.

We stitched in August and then at the September meeting we worked on the assembly of our hornbooks.  Our group discovered that they were quite easy to put together.  Four or five Hornbooks were completely finished at the meeting and four more were completed the following Saturday.  A few more will be completed in October.

Overall, it was a fun, educational experience for all and we’re very pleased with how our Hornbooks turned out.  Thank you Ellen for providing this opportunity!

Thanks, Cathy.  It certainly sounds like you all had some great workshops based on the Quaker Hornbooks.

The Quaker Hornbook is only available as a group project to a minimum of 10 needleworkers.  The project has been very popular with guilds and shops.  You can read more about it here.