Posts from the ‘Pillows’ Category
When I’m shopping for vintage and antique textiles, I organize my shopping by color themes. I like the colors to at least wink at each other, if they don’t speak. These are Geija sleeve textiles, a Dong dowry textile and a hand embroidered Hmong piece. Check out our newest items at PontiusShop.
These are still drying in the back yard–phulkaris that I have dyed to more muted colors. The befores are at the bottom of the post.
Alta May was my great grandmother who did the original cotton on cotton embroidery sometime in the 1920’s. This is a newly made pillow that I have over-dyed and piece worked — adding a hand embroidered text a Sapho fragment: Someone will remember us, I say, in another time.
The text is from Mina Loy’s Poem, There is No Life or Death. Read the complete poem and some of her others over here. This pillow is from a group of text pillows–done free-hand on my sewing machine. The fabric is dark oatmeal linen and the thread is this fantastic pink from my favorite embroidery shop, Des Fils et une Aiguille, in Paris. The other pillows in the group, not shown, are similar and the quotes are at the very bottom of this page.
To see some of my past blogs on Mina Loy, click one or both of those links. 
The group of Grey Hmong Wedding Quilt Pillows— I just finished them this week– have accent colors from a true pink to a pale peach.
Here are some things that I am working on this week: fantastic chain stitch Hmong embroidery– silk on cotton–combined with a hand loomed hemp. They will be part of our Kaili Pillow Collection at Pontius SHOP –Our Kaili Collection is named after Kaili City, China– the capitol of the Miao people and other ethnic minorities who are known for their exquisite well crafted embroidered textiles.
This fragment jumped off the shelf at me when I looking for Fez Textiles in Paris this past June. Probably Greek late 18th to Early 19th C– a fabulous piece of inspiration- long and narrow with 3 odd but delightful patterns embroidered in silk and metallic threads on a homespun linen. Bellow are details of the embroidery.
I do all sorts of custom work. Most of it is not photographed. This pillow is for a client who had this needlepoint stashed away in a closet for several years. She had seen some of my other work and gave me a call. I had free reign to do whatever I wanted. I had thought, fleas. French knots. Another swarm. I like swarms. See here and here.
I do custom pillows and some other more unsual jobs. Recently completed jobs are 8 pairs of white linen curtains appliqued with 200 black bird silhouettes . Another was a 9′ tall sheer linen tent with appliqued flowers and scallop details.
These are two exquisite Fez embroideries I found in Paris. They are unique because of their dark blue color and that they are larger complete pieces. The smaller of the two is fine example from the 19th century in tones of indigo and woad. It could be called architectural in the patterning. Several times the dealer told me it is a classic design, “It’s in books!” she said. It has very fine stitching– the front and the back being the same, and if you embroidery, you know what talent that takes.
The second piece is from the 1940’s and is unusual in that it is an all over pattern, repeating the same motif. You can see the charming –what you could call a conscious irregularity– in the middle towards the right side where the motifs interconnect. This could be considered a mistake, but it is most likely following the idea the only God is perfect. If you create a perfect textile you are saying you are like god. Therefore there is a conscious irregularity in the pattern to not be perfect.
Check out some previous custom fez pillows I have made in the past.
For these two new Fez the question is…to cut or not to cut? I think for now these will be going up for sale as is at PontiusSHOP later in the week.
This is a quote that I came across reading The Sun King, by Nancy Mitford. Read about it in the archives.
This is done with a vintage cotton thread on linen–the quote is from Nancy Mitford’s book, The Sun King.
In spite of being one of history’s most famous sodomites, Monsieur had two wives, a mistress and eleven legitimate children…the Grandfather of Europe every Roman Catholic royal family has him among its ancestors. All the kings of France after Louis XIV as well as Marie Antoinette and the son of Napoleon.
