In Moscow in the 1990s, many "home" items seemed to come out of the woodwork (or a family chest) to flea markets. While people then didn't seem to want handwork items much, it would be impossible to find towels like these now -- they would have been snapped up by antique dealers or cut up to make pillows for a new "old dacha" decor.
So I had my pick of lovely towels, and decided to purchase ones with "red" motifs, and to also buy ones that were as clean as possible. "Clean" is a relative word here, as many towels I saw had been used to wrap food or other items in, and were full of stains or rust marks. I feel fortunate to have the ones I do -- I think most of them were never used. Who knows the stories behind them? They are all hand embroidered or cross stitched, each beautifully made by an anonymous woman for her dowry or home.
this one is done is chain stitch embroidery
... and I have more, but they needed ironing badly, so I decided not to put the photos up here yet!
My next dilemma is: how to display them? I don't have any wall space in my sewing room to mount a rod and hang them; for the moment, I will drape them over a small IKEA wooden drying rack.
Any ideas?
2 comments:
These are fabulous! I wish I had display ideas for you. They need to be seen!
You're so lucky for having picked them up! So many hours of stitching were necessary to make these pieces of art. Especially the one with the chain stitch ebroidery is soooo beautiful.
At the moment I can't think of an other way of displaying them apart from putting them on the wall... :(
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