Embroidery can be categorized according to whether the design is stitched on top or through the fabric. Embroidery styles include free embroidery, cross-stitching, canvas, cutwork, etc. Matreials used in embroidery vary from place to place. Wool, linen and silk have been used as both fabric and yarn for thousands of years. Modern embroidery thread is manufactured in cotton, rayon and novelty yearns as well as the traditional wool, linen and silk. Ribbon is sometimes used, most commonly to create floral motifs.
This piece was donated by Carol English in 2013. She bought it from the Rosewood Funeral Home, later became Brockie Donovan. It was originally owned by Mrs. Leonida Leatherdale, the founder of the Embroiderers’ Guild of Canada (later Embroiderers’ Association of Canada). She founded the EAC in 1973. The frame is from The Little Gallery (Gordon Smith Co. Ltd.) in Winnipeg, MB.
Mrs. Leatherdale and her guild became the first chapter of the EAC. The head office is located in Winnipeg, MB. The founding members believed this was the best location to start branching out to other guilds to the eat and west.
The frame also has a Winnipeg art connection. Gordon A. Smith, a Modernist painter, was born in Sussex, England in 1919. His family emigrated to Canada in 1933. He taught and did commercial design in Winnipeg before serving as an intelligence office in World War II. He returned wounded in 1941 and spent the rest of his career in Vancouver, British Columbia.
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