March 1998: A Book Review and a Poem
Oh my, do I have the most wonderful book in my hands right now. Someone donated a group of books to our local Embroiderer's Guild, and I am the first to take home Thomasina Beck's "Gardening with Silk and Gold: A History of Gardens in Embroidery," 1997. (The ISBN is 0 7153 0487 9). Only buy this book if you like to be amazed by fantastic embroidery of the ages, and if you won't feel completely humbled and humiliated by what other stitchers have accomplished. This book talks about gardens of the ages: Elizabethan, Stuart, The Grand Manner, Georgian Gardens, Victorian Gardens, Twentieth-Century Gardens, and more...all in their connection to needlework. Some beautiful gardens from hundreds of years ago were recorded in stitches so we can still enjoy their beautiful blooms today. This book is so inspiring, especially as well (in this hemisphere) wait patiently for spring (we received four inches of snow today!) And I'm sharing here, to close, a poem which graces one of the first pages of the book:
In Spring when Flow'rs your garden grace,
With Needle or Pencil you can trace
Each curious Form, and various Dye
So represent unto the Eye,
Noble proportion Ev'ry Part
That Nature blushes at your Art
by John Rea, "Flora," 1665.
© 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