My aunt is a wonderful embroiderer and crocheter. She tried to teach me when I was younger, but I just wasn't patient enough.
A while ago, when she found out about my sudden conversion to crafting, she handed off this kit to my mom, who then passed it along to me. This is a crewel pillow cover, care of Kugel-Vogart, 1971. Take a look.
The yarn color is what really throws me. Did people perceive color differently forty years ago? The owl is freaky enough, but that moon is definitely a Stephen King colored moon. Fuming orange, indeed. Now I know what he was trying to get across.
The interesting part, though, is that only half the materials are still in the kit. Although the pattern for the mushroom is still there, the stamped pillow cover and yarn are gone. Someone made that pillow. They scorned the embroidery transfers of pretty flowers, dancing vegetables, and girls in dresses holding puppies, and chose a sinister mushroom instead.
And now owls have come back into fashion. So, do you know anyone who's looking for a vintage owl pattern? I have just the thing.
That is pretty scary. And very 1970s. My mom was not a crafter in any sense of the word. She was not domestic and much preferred shopping to any handmade anything. But there was a short stint where she must have fallen in with the wrong crowd and they all signed up for a crafting class. They made these seed pictures where they glued corn kernals and seeds onto very 1970s avocado green fabric in the shape of flowers and such and then framed them under glass. Not unlike gluing macaroni on construction paper in kindergarten really. But we still have it and displayed at that!
ReplyDeleteI love how you put that - 'she fell in with the wrong crowd'. It makes me imagine your mom in a leather jacket, spray painting, 'Make craft, not war' in an alleyway.
ReplyDelete