I stopped, on a whim, into one of the thrift stores I go to frequently and found this. It's an awesome counted cross stitch (thanks Ellen in Oregon!) that is obviously old and has been around for awhile.
It's very detailed and has lovely flowers and leaves stitched all over it. The pink roses drew me to it because I knew it would go great in the guest room at the farm.
Then it has the sweetest phrase on it: "To love and be loved is the greatest joy on earth". A very nice sentiment for everyone.
Here it is in all its beauty (IMHO, ha).
The surprising thing is it is pretty large. About 16x20. Oh sure, there are some tiny stains on it, and it's faded a bit with age, but then I got to thinking about who might have made it. Someone's Mother or Grandmother or heck, Great Grandmother? Maybe as a wedding gift, or an anniversary gift or a birthday gift? Someone obviously made it with love, framed it with love and gave it with love. But somehow, it's now ended up in a thrift store, to be sold off or sent to the dumpster. I just couldn't let that happen.
I took it out there this weekend and hung it up. It fit the flower theme in the guest room perfectly! So it will be ours from now on. Perhaps someday it will again end up in a thrift store and maybe the cycle with be repeated.
Everything old is new again!
The surprising thing is it is pretty large. About 16x20. Oh sure, there are some tiny stains on it, and it's faded a bit with age, but then I got to thinking about who might have made it. Someone's Mother or Grandmother or heck, Great Grandmother? Maybe as a wedding gift, or an anniversary gift or a birthday gift? Someone obviously made it with love, framed it with love and gave it with love. But somehow, it's now ended up in a thrift store, to be sold off or sent to the dumpster. I just couldn't let that happen.
I took it out there this weekend and hung it up. It fit the flower theme in the guest room perfectly! So it will be ours from now on. Perhaps someday it will again end up in a thrift store and maybe the cycle with be repeated.
Everything old is new again!
Very cool!
ReplyDeleteWell thank you!! I just couldn't resist.
DeleteIt is beautiful! A lot of time went into that. Glad you gave it a new home.
ReplyDeleteThanks, I don't know much about the work, but I imagined it was a lot, ha. Yep, it's with us forever now. :-)
Deletegreat find. it is perfect in that room! now it has a nice new life!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a new lease on life. And someone's hard work is on view once again.
DeletePerfect. I found a hummingbird one to do at GW and I brought it home to do. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI bet that will be pretty. I'll have to look for more, I really like the style.
DeleteIt's beautiful. I'm glad you rescued it and gave it a home.
ReplyDeleteYou know, as soon as I saw it, I just knew we had to have it. Thanks!!
DeleteI love it as well as all your other pics. A long time ago my favourite cross stitch became dirty and stained. I removed it from it's frame and took it to a dry cleaners. It came back perfectly clean. If yours has been professionally framed then perhaps a framing shop could remove it for you though I know you are a rather handy pair of men.
ReplyDeleteWell thank you very much. I didn't know dry cleaners could do that. It just so happens that as that guest room came together, with the yellow and pink theme (some of my Mom's furniture and favorite colors), flowers just sort of started becoming the dominant theme. I still need, er want, some more prints and vintage flowery items for the walls.
DeleteA beautiful find with such a lovely sentiment. Works perfect in your guest room! It takes a special person to appreciate a piece a like that!!
ReplyDeleteAw, thanks! I just had a feeling when I saw it that it was meant to be. :-)
DeleteOh, isn't it just the loveliest thing??? I'd have been tempted to hang it in the master bedroom, a perfect sentiment for that loving sanctuary. But it is really pretty where you have it, as if it were made just for that spot.
ReplyDeleteWe thought about that but it seemed to fit better in this room. But we can still see it all the time where it's hanging so it's good. Lovely is a nice description!!
DeleteI love that you rescued this beautiful cross stitch and gave it such a pretty home. I do this kind of work and often ponder what will happen to it someday. Perhaps to a loving home like yours!
ReplyDeleteMary
Thanks, that's very kind of you to say. I know that someday your work will be appreciated by someone who cares about it just as much as you. :-)
DeleteVery pretty! I love old things that have held up well.
ReplyDeleteI know, I think that's what I enjoy about finding them, just knowing that they have made it through 'life' and ended up in front of me, ha.
DeleteI absolutely love the counted cross stitch piece you have found. It is beautifully done. I am not an expert by any means, but it looks like it likely dates to around the 1940s or 1950's when counted cross stitch was very popular. Yours is beautifully done and I love the saying. It is one I have not come across before. There is a great cleaning product now sold online or at quilt stores called Retro Clean. It is safe for all vintage fabrics & will not do anything to harm the fabric which is likely all cotton. I used Retro Clean last year when I inherited some beautiful tatting pieces that were almost 200 years old. They had once been a snowy ivory and had turned a dingy yellow. I wish I had taken before & after photos as the Retro Clean transformed the intricately crocheted tatting pieces back to the color they were intended to be. They could have been made yesterday they looked so fresh & new. I had them framed in a shadow box & love the way they are displayed & preserved for another couple hundred years.
ReplyDeleteThere are a couple of things that you will want to avoid that can degrade your cross stitch artwork . The 1st is to avoid exposing it to direct sunlight.
The 2nd is you will want to remove any cardboard backing for frame mounting board and replace them with acid free or archival quality cardboard.
Cross stitch is usually framed in an open frame without glass or plexiglass covering the stitchery. If a person wants glass added to their frame, they need to have it professionally framed so spacers can be placed to keep the glass from coming into direct contact with the fabric. Glass pressed up against fabric can cause humidity to become trapped and other degradation problems, Most cross stitch pieces are left open and not enclosed with glass. Once of the reasons to consider removing the stains is because stains can eventually etch through the fabric,
Before doing anything, cover the hose end of your vacuum with an old piece of pantyhose to decrease the suction power. Go over the entire piece of fabric with the vacuum so that as much loose dirt as possible is removed. Then you can go online and look at directions for cleaning counted cross stitch. It will tell you about checking for color fastness or follow the directions on the Retro Clean bottle. About.com has good general directions for cleaning & keeping your art work clean over time. I believe when I used the Retro Clean. I just mixed the solution with water, let is sit for w while and then rinsed in cool water. I believe it has a something in the solution to set the dye so it will not run. After your piece is clean, then it just needs to be gently pressed with an iron and the edges pulled over the acid free backer board and excess fabric taped in place. Then it is ready to be put back into its' frame. Vacuuming your piece a couple of times a year with the pantyhose covered hose will maintain the cleanliness of your fabric art work.
The cross stitch you found is lovely & looks great great. It is so nice when a beautiful thing gets a whole new lease on life when it is discovered in a thrift store, I think the person who spent hours stitching this wonderful sampler would be so proud knowing that it is still being appreciated by someone & proudly hanging in their home. I am so happy you found such a great one of a kind work of art for your bedroom. It really adds to the historic charm of the house and is perfect with your decor.
WOW! You are a commenter rockstar, ha! thanks! OK< definitely checking out the retroclean product. Not just for the possibility of this but for other stuff we have in storage that might need some 'freshening' up. You have given us all some very valuable information. It definitely has a new lease on life and will be enjoyed for many more years to come. Thank you again, very much!
Delete1st Man,
ReplyDeleteBeautiful!!!! Great find, and it looks lovely on the wall where you hung it.
It did actually kind of fit perfectly. I'm guessing it was meant to be, ha.
DeleteLove it! I love the pink roses & bluebirds! So glad you rescued it!
ReplyDeleteThe pink roses caught my eye (it was covered up on the shelf by other framed pictures and such). It's definitely rescued! :-)
DeleteI have to say that I love the painting/picture below. They are my favorite flowers. I'm also coveting that lamp, LOL!
ReplyDeleteWell thanks for asking about it, the painting below (it is a painting) was done by "Ma" that we bought the house from. We hung hit up and it just fit perfectly with the colors of the room and it seems to be appropriate to have a piece of her still there. As for the lamp, that's a family heirloom, it belonged to my Dad's Great Aunt, if I recall correctly, and dates from about the 40's or so. Thanks!!!
DeleteI am glad you rescued it. Ellen is absolutely correct in all she said. Be careful where you have it framed. One place that frames lots of crocheted pieces glues the crochet onto cardboard. I cringe when I think of what they do. Thankfully, I never allowed them to frame my needlepoint I was giving for gifts. I almost took it all there.
ReplyDeleteIt is really a great piece.
Sometimes when framed prints, needlework, and other framed art do not sell, the item keeps being reduced. Then, someone buys it, rips the picture/needlework from the frame, tosses the ruined piece of art into the trash and proudly carries off the frame. It hurts me.
I never thought about that, some places glue it to the cardboard? Oh my gosh, that's just wrong on so many levels. I was afraid this was designed for that fate as well. I just realized I didn't post how much I paid. It was $3.99! A great deal. Some people don't have respect for our past do they? Thanks!!
DeleteWhat a beautiful treasure you found at the thrift stores!! Brings back memories of childhood when I spent the entire summers at my grandparents cattle ranch in Mexico. My grandmother, along w other women of the surrounding ranches, would get together to cross stitch linen pillow case, quilts, crochet doilies - all beautiful pieces of arts in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteLove all your recycled pictures. Many years ago, in a land far away, my step-mom had a 5 & 10 cent store picture. She needed a backing to straighten out the warp and used another picture for this purpose. I grew up, moved out on my own and needed some things to hang on the apt walls. She gave me that picture. Well, a few years later, after many moves, the picture fell to the floor and I found what that backing was all about. She had used the charcoal and ink drawing of my great-great grandmother as the backing. So, it now hangs in the stairway (away from sunlight) in a lovely frame, such as the one you have over the bed. I was so shocked to find this picture, as most of the family portraits were destroyed back in the 1930's. Take Care. M
ReplyDeleteI love it and have the very same one in my home - that I stitched myself many years ago! Love the message.
ReplyDeleteI love it! I stitched one of these myself back in the summer of 1981 when I was in college. This was a cross-stitch kit. I gave it to my mom when I was finished, and she framed it in a manner similar to the one you have. The four bluebirds, she felt, represented the four of us children. I can't say I disagree... :)
ReplyDelete