tapestry, worked in the eleventh century by Matilda, wife of William
the Conqueror, and her ladies, is a continuous series of pictures, two
hundred and fourteen feet long by about two feet wide, which represent
scenes in the invasion and conquest of England. Old as it is, the
colors are still undimmed and brilliant. Even so lately as the last
century, ladies designed their own patterns, and embroidered court
dresses and trimmings with flowers and birds copied from nature. But
for many years back fancy-work has degenerated into the following of
set models, without exercising any "fancy" of one's own at all. Now
the old method is come into fashion again, and it means so much more,
and is so vastly more interesting than copying a cut-and-dried pattern
from a shop, that we long to set you all to trying your hands at it.
For example, if you want a cushion with a group of daisies, gather a
handful of fresh ones,--take a bit of linen or china crape, or fine
crash or pongee, and, with green and white and gray and gold-colored
silks, make a picture of the daisies as they look to you, not using
any particular kind of stitch, but employing long ones or short ones,
or loose or tight ones, just as comes most easily in giving the effect
you want to get. This is much nicer than counting the stitches on a
paper pattern and a bit of canvas, and when done, produces a much
better effect. Even in winter, a real flower or a fern-spray, by way
of model, can always be found in the flower-shops or greenhouses.
Practice will stimulate invention and suggest all sorts of devices and
ideas. Bits of pretty stuffs will catch your eye as adaptable for use,
and oddly tinted silks (the old, faded colors often work in better
than fresh ones), patterns on fans, on rice paper, on Japanese
pictures--all sorts of things--will serve as material for your fancy.
And when your work is done it will be _original_, and, as such, more
valuable and interesting than any shop model, however beautiful in
itself, can possibly be.