Vintage Thingies 13 - old handicraft books

This week I'm participating again in Vintage Thingies Thursday, hosted by Suzanne. For some reason Mr. Linky is not working so there is - at the moment at least - not a list of links to the participating blogs, but in the comments you will find their addresses. Let's hope the link list can be fixed soon.



Last week I saw here pictures from a Swedish book and I thought I had the book. Well, my mother probably has it, but I have many other old handicraft books. The first one is about bobbin lace making. I have inherited the lace cushion and bobbins from my great aunt Saima, the loveliest os spare grandmothers anyone can imagine. My daughter Kaija has just recently posted some pictures of her. I have learned the basics of bobbin lace making, but never finished anything useful - yet.

Here you can see her handwriting. The date is 1st of November 1928.

These are some patterns from that book. I have read somewhere that bobbin lace making came to Finland with sailors who on their travels had learned this skill. Rauma on the western coast is famous for the lace. Sorry the link is in Finnish only.

The second book I'm showing today is about traditional Finnish embroidery. The book is published in 1950, but the material is based on the author's trips to Eastern Carelia in 1938 and 1939, before the war.

The following two pictures refused to turn, so you may need to tilt your head a little to see the birds. These embroideries were traditionally sewn with double running stitches, using red thread.

The cloth pictured here is called käspaikka , a towel. With all the embroidery and the lace it was not just any towel but also something to be given as a gift.

The book had a few coloured pictures as well, and this little table cloth or cushion cover was my favourite.

That is all for this week, I have more pictures and more books for Thursdays to come.

I had the most welcome comment on my last post. My dear "sister" Linda from Tucson, Arizona, had received my Christmas card with a note telling about this blog, and she popped in to say hi. Linda spent a summer in my family in 1964 as an exchange student. I was so young that I had not started learning English at school yet, but I could communicate with her on some level, with the help of my elder sisters and brothers. I kept in touch with her on and off over the years. When she was living in Switzerland, we corresponded in German, and later I learned English so we switched to that. In the sixties my family had three times a summer student, and one girl staying the whole school year, but Linda is the only one still remembering us. It feels good to know that we could make her feel welcome and safe, being all alone on the other side of the world. It was easy to like her from the first day she arrived. She travelled back to USA with my real sister Maija, who was going there for a year as an exchange student in another family.