Part of the fun of Ecclesiastical Sewing and Ecclesiastical Embroidery is being on the lookout for treasured resources. I keep hoping that someday a magical hidden stash of Ecclesiastical Embroidery patterns will be discovered and made available for those of us who love to stitch Church Linens using hand embroidery. Oh, yes, I can create the designs, but the design process is very time-consuming and difficult to do while working full-time. I prefer to have the designs ready so I can get to the fun – which is the stitching and actual making up of an item.
So, on I search. As part of that search, there are always a few items in my “saved for later” cart on my favorite book sites. Some recently ordered books had been on “the wish list” for quite a while for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the book was available for free online, so having a hard copy seemed unnecessary. Sometimes the books were on the “expensive side” and had to wait. Or there were those books that seemed to fall in the grey, murky category of not being true Ecclesiastical Books. From the description, would they be of some interest some remote interest or provide information? Taking a leap of faith, some of the books were ordered. This past weekend, a few items arrived. Several volumes were hardly worth ordering, and that is the chance one takes. Some, when they arrived, turned out to be far to expensive for what was received. There was one little, uninteresting book that arrived in a state of near tatters. Well, after the initial disappointment that the book was in such poor shape subsided, the optimist took over saying, “It’s not so bad.” After all, it was $10, and there might be something of interest in it. The well-worn volume was put aside and forgotten for a while.
Later, when I had a chance to look over the book a little more closely, I noticed that there were several pages where the book fell open because they were bulky. So, looking at the first page, I was surprised to find a little iron on Ecclesiastical Embroidery transfer. How exciting! To think, these were readily available back in time for the embroidery, simplifying the transfer process. The design is nice, about 3 1/2″ in size, suitable for many things such as for use on a stole end, or to use for whitework on Church Linens. The design did not look familiar, which is always a plus!
Flipping through a few more pages, the book fell open again Another treasure! This was a larger Ecclesiastical Embroidery transfer sheet. It had four Ecclesiastical Embroidery designs still intact, and a space where one design had been cut away. There seemed to be one more spot where the book was bulky. Could there be yet another embroidery transfer pattern hidden in the pages of such a tiny book? There was! This iron on Ecclesiastical embroidery transfer was long and narrow. It would be perfectly suited for use on a stole, or as for orphreys on an altar frontal. Three vintage Ecclesiastical embroidery transfer sheets were hidden in the pages of a tattered book.
Suddenly, the value of the book became priceless. What a treasure to be had and for only $10!
Solo Dei Gloria
Filed under: Church Linens, Ecclesiastical Embroidery, Ecclesiastical Sewing Tagged: church embroidery, Church Linens, church needlework projects, Ecclesiastcial Embroidery, Ecclesiastical Books, Ecclesiastical Designs, Ecclesiastical Embroidery, Ecclesiastical Embroidery pattern, Ecclesiastical Embroidery Transfers, Ecclesiastical Sewing, embroidery pattern, Iron on Embroidery Transfers, Stole Designs, White Work
