The Embroideress

Many of us have long been familiar with embroidery historian Mary Gostelow's books of the 70's/80's. Her books are out-of-print but widely available (some at very reasonable price). They are "large" almost coffee-table sorts of books in that they are full of quality illustrations and graphics (many in color). There is invariably interesting text surrounding the illustrations which are often not found in many other publications.

My holiday present to myself this year is a copy of one of her books Art of Embroidery (ISBN 0 525 93064 7) which explores museums, cathedrals and historic sites that house significant embroidery collections in the UK and US. She avoids the large, well-documented collections and brings to the forefront some lesser known institutions such as the Ohio Historical Society and Westwood Manor. 21 different sites are included as well as a few stitch diagrams, author's notes and bibliography.