Project Gutenberg's Art in Needlework, by Lewis F. Day and Mary Buckle

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: Art in Needlework
A Book about Embroidery

Author: Lewis F. Day
Mary Buckle

Release Date: March 7, 2009 [EBook #28269]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ART IN NEEDLEWORK ***

Produced by Constanze Hofmann and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

Transcriber's Note:

The printed Errata have been corrected in the text. A few additional
printer's errors have been corrected, details of the corrections can be
found at the end of this e-text.

* * * * *

ART IN NEEDLEWORK

TEXT-BOOKS OF ORNAMENTAL DESIGN

ART IN NEEDLEWORK

A BOOK ABOUT EMBROIDERY

BY

LEWIS F. DAY

AUTHOR OF 'WINDOWS,' 'ALPHABETS,'
'NATURE IN ORNAMENT' AND OTHER
TEXT-BOOKS OF ORNAMENTAL DESIGN

& MARY BUCKLE

LONDON:
B. T. BATSFORD 94 HIGH HOLBORN
1900

BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO. LD., PRINTERS,
LONDON AND TONBRIDGE.

PREFACE.

Embroidery may be looked at from more points of view than it would be
possible in a book like this to take up seriously. Merely to hover round
the subject and glance casually at it would serve no useful purpose. It
may be as well, therefore, to define our standpoint: we look at the art
from its practical side, not, of course, neglecting the artistic, for
the practical use of embroidery is to be beautiful.

The custom has been, since woman learnt to kill time with the needle, to
think of embroidery too much as an idle accomplishment. It is more than
that. At the very least it is a handicraft: at the best it is an art.
This contention may be to take it rather seriously; but if one esteemed
it less it would hardly be worth writing about, and the book, when
written, would not be worth the attention of students of embroidery,
needleworkers, and designers of needlework to whom it is addressed. It
sets forth to show what decorative stitching is, how it is done, and
what it can do. It is illustrated by sample