The Needle's Excellency
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The needles excellency -- a new booke wherin are diuers admirable workes wrought with the needle ; newly inuented and cut in copper for the pleasure and profit of the industrious , by John Taylor My ambition! One of my other interests (besides books) is embroidery. I like a lot of different kinds of embroidery and lately I've been getting into some historical forms. I've been learning some crewel work and my next ambition is to learn stumpwork--a hideous name for a lovely kind of embroidery with three-dimensional elements. I made my family get me some pretty stumpwork books for Christmas, and I'm even taking a gorgeous online course about embroidered caskets. Naturally, therefore, I also like reading about historical embroidery. It's fascinating, people. In Europe a few hundred years ago, embroidery was not only an important part of a girl's education and abilities, it was considered to be a virtuous pastime that encouraged moral thought. Women used t