Something Old - Modern Interpretations of Historic Design

I thought I would share the story behind one of my embroidery projects I did back in 2009 that I posted on my Flickr.

I stumbled upon an announcement online for a fiber arts competition being held by the Dakota County Historical Society called "Modern Interpretations of Historical Design" based on embroidery designs from the Hastings Needlework Company. 

Since I grew up in the town of Hastings, MN and it was an embroidery competition, I thought it would be fun to send in a submission and see if it was chosen.

So a little background on the challenge.

The Hastings Needlework Company was started in 1888 by Alice and Florence LeDuc, who produced unique embroidery pieces for their clients from 1888 to the mid-1920s. Over 1,200 patterns have survived, showing a broad variety of design styles and subjects. The patterns are in the collections of the Dakota County and Minnesota historical societies.

We were given 24 patterns to choose from. "Modern Interpretations of Historic Designs" was the general theme and Entries were evaluated on quality, creativity and interpretation of the pattern(s), aesthetics and

workmanship.

Here is the pattern I chose to use so you have an idea of what I had to begin with after seeing the finished piece above.

I decided to stitch it very colorful and add a bunch of borders around the whole design. 

Please excuse my use of flash. I need to re-take some photos of this piece!!

I was excited when I found out my submission was chosen to be in the exhibit! If I remember, there were about 20 total submissions that were on display at the LeDuc Historic Estate for people to come see.

It was really awesome to see all the other submissions, what patterns people chose, and to see their interpretation. 

What is also cool is that the event has been ongoing! There is a challenge in 2013-2014 for the Modern Interpretations of Historic Design with all new patterns to choose from and is the third challenge since the event in 2009.