I’m delighted to share this post. My Keepsake hand embroideries are part of Life Stories by Ali Ferguson. Ali has included three of my stitched Keepsakes in her new book, Life Stories: Textile Art Inspired by People and Memories. Batsford publishes it, and it’s a beautifully written book.
Each chapter is full of inspiration, and full of ideas for putting your own stories into cloth.
Words from memories
You’ll find me on pages 86 and 87. Everything I stitched comes from our busy house in Lancashire, and from the small things I’ve kept.
First, there’s my duffle coat. It was a hand-me-down, well worn and much loved. I wore it whatever the winter threw at us. Years later, the wooden toggles turned up in Mum’s button tin.
Words: Snow is falling … School finishes early … bus stops at the bottom of the hill and we’ve a long walk back home in the dark … Wellies, duffle coat, scarf … forgot the gloves today and my hands are frozen … snow is deep and getting deeper … strong wind and driving thick snow… our school bags get heavier with every step … Home at last … Warm air on my face … Smell baking – Flour on mum’s apron … It’s pie for tea … my favourite.
Then there’s Dad. Whether he was working with stone or timber, he always had a sharpened pencil behind his ear. Years later these pencils were still on his workbench in the cellar.
Words: He wore a flat cap, shirt with rolled up sleeves and always had crisp turn ups on his trousers filled with grit. Of an evening he’d put his dusty cap down with his keys, a pencil he’d sharpened with a Stanley knife and a torn scrap of cereal box he used for writing on.
And then there’s Mum’s keys.
Words: On a barley twist table that bakes in the sun, at the foot of the stairs in the hall. On a fob on a chain near a shiny black phone, lives a bundle of keys to our home.
As always, I stitched with vintage Sylko in Turkey Red, my favourite. The cloth came from an old pillowcase, which I took apart and dyed naturally. I worked the words in couching and back stitch, then made the cord from vintage thread.
You can purchase your copy via an affiliation link here.