I'm going to switch gears here, so you can see where I'm coming from. In the past five years I've been on-line, I've heard (and read) a number of stories from needlework collectors. They've found or purchased a piece of needlework, but they have no information about the stitcher. Wouldn't it be neat if 100 years ago, the stitcher had penciled a note about herself and placed it within the framing?
Chances are that future generations of your family will inherit your wonderful pieces, but they won't necessarily know much about you. There's also the chance that needlework of yours will leave the family, and if all you have on your piece is your initials and the date (or not even that?), the future caretaker of your piece will be missing out on knowing you.
If you have a computer, this can be easy, but photocopiers also can make this a fun and simple project.
You could start by making a template either in a graphics design program or with your word processor. Here are some of the types of information you could include:
Use your creative skills to make the layout of your information sheet really unique. If you've taken some scrapbook classes, you could use some of those ideas when putting together your template. Include some clip art that you think represents you, for example. Or use as a header (or footer) a quote, poem, or line from a song that you like.
Once you've got a nice template (and remember, you don't have to do this on the computer!), take it to the copy shop and have a bunch of copies made on nice (acid-free?) paper. (You might even consider making sheets like these for a friend who stitches to fill out for her needlework.) Fill out sheets for pieces already on your walls, put each sheet in an envelope, and attach it to the back of the framed piece. Send completed sheets to friends and relatives who may have already received needlework from you with instructions about what to do with the information. Keeping it with the piece is the best guarantee that your information will be passed down. You may also include on the back of the piece the chart used (I do this on most of my work -- when someone comes over and asks about the design, I just pull it off of the back of the piece!) Round Robin information will be really interesting in a hundred years. I think it's one of those areas of needlework that will be intriguing for scholars down the road. You may choose to include the list of names and addresses (and biographies) of the participants of the group, as well as the instructions you passed around with your piece.
Each time you have a piece framed, you can either take a sheet to the framer and have it enclosed behind the backing paper, or have him or her make a pocket on the back for the information sheet. Remember to keep extra sheets around, and keep a few copies of the original, because you eventually will stitch all 500 charts that you have in your stash. Honest!
You also may have pieces that aren't framed -- blankets, needlerolls, ornaments... Wherever you store those pieces is where you should also store information about yourself.
One more way to insure your "infamy" is to stitch your complete name, city, state (country?), and date of completion (or year of birth) somewhere in the margin of your design, near the edge of the fabric. While this information will be hidden by the framing, it will remain with the piece permanently.
I hope you all have a wonderful Easter and beginning of spring. The crocuses are finally up here in North Dakota -- how much hope they bring!
© 2007 Theresa Venette. Articles on this site may be reproduced in needlework group newsletters or other handouts with permission of author and proper attribution. Send questions, comments and suggestions to: xspeddler@yahoo.com