Swedish Embroidery from 1963

A distinguished addition to our series on European Needlework

Swedish Embroidery

Seven beautiful designs imported from Sweden where, for centuries, women have proudly stitched their love of flowers on line pillows

"Tulips bloom on a background of heavy natural linen from Sweden. They are worked of simple stitches in specially dyed Swedish cotton thread."

"Summer in Sweden is a short season, golden with sunlight and filled with flowers. To keep the memory of its sunlit days alive Swedish women spend many hours during the long winters embroidering flowers."

"Apple tree, embroidered in five different kinds of stitches, is a fine example of the uses of shaded colors."

Upper left: "Lilacs and their leaves embroidered with white French knots and lazy daisies done in Swedish linen thread woven from Halsingland flax." Upper right: "Mosaic pattern in brilliant colors and varied textures in made with French knots, couching, chain, outline, satin and straight stitches." Lower: "Field flowers grow on this pillow in a veritable sampler of stitches including variations of couching and chain stitching."

"The heavy linen threads used are the very finest, spun from fax frown in Halsingland, the land of the midnight sun, where i is nourish by sunlight day and night for many months. Its long fibers take beautifully to dye; intricate effects are achieved by shading colors from their palest tone to their strongest in emulation of the natural way that flowers blossom."

Upper: "Rose basket is filled with outline stitched roses in many shades of red, fly stitched daisies, small blossoms of satin stitch and is dotted with French knots." Lower: "Spring in all its glory conveyed by delicate pastels and a design created with seven varieties of stitches including lazy daisy, long and short, French knots."

"Beginning usually with white on white outline stitch, each girl is carefully trained, so that by the time she is fourteen she is able to make her own project without help."

"In just a few weeks small groups of women will begin gathering together all over Sweden for their annual opsitta. An opsitta is the Swedish version of an American quilting bee, and as the weeks draw nearer to Christmas, the women take turns meeting at each other's homes."

"Among the gifts to be made will be many lovely pillows similar to those pictured on these pages, and the pillow that will cause the most pleasure and concern will be the fastmanskudde, for this is a very special pillow made with loving care that is given by a wife to her husband for his favorite chair or by a single girl to her best beau, often in exchange for an engagement ring. "

from Woman's Day, September 1963

1963 Advice For Decorating Small Rooms

The September 1963 Woman's Day "How to Decorate" was about 

A Small Room

Dining room, light and open as a terrace, looks cool and airy. Sunny yellow walls, see through iron furniture and glass topped table, flagstone, patterned vinyl floor and growing plants relate the room to the outdoors.

Study-Guest room with a window wall of built-ins to frame a studio couch, is modern and streamlined. Wood lattice is decorative, engages rather than stops the eye; maps bring in the whole world. Fresh colors against white and light rattan furniture are visual space-makers.

 Bedroom keyed to a matching narrow-striped wallpaper and ticking, is delightfully feminine. The strip is good because it is lively but not insistent. The sheer curtains, painted chest and lacy white wrought iron and glass wall console and mirror are suitably delicate.

Sitting room arranged for adult conversation, has a quiet elegance. Two reasons: colors are rich, glowing, closely related; furniture is graceful, small in scale. The one heavy piece, the chest with mirror above, fits neatly into recess formed by built-in storage cabinets.

Big Changes In Small Kitchens

The August 1962 Family Circle magazine included an article "Big Changes for Small Kitchens."I really liked this photo because it reminds me of the cabinets in our 1966 ranch.

Our original cabinets have copper hardware added by my folks in the 1970s, and the cabinets were refinished by my brother in the 1980s. I am told they are in wonderful shape. Otherwise the kitchen is all original.

Here is the kitchen 'work space' when we inherited it:

No dishwasher. The 'hood' over the range is just for lighting, there is no exhaust fan. The hanging light was made by Dad in the 1970s.

Ideas for making better use of a small kitchen in 1962:

This kitchen was made into an "L" shape with everything easily reachable for one person, obviously the lady of the house ruled the roost in this department. NO ONE ELSE was allowed in! I mean, where would they fit?

I lived in a house with this arrangement: corner sink with dishwasher and range flanking it, fridge next to the dishwasher. It was horrible to work in! Thankfully the parsonage underwent a remodel.

The next kitchen added a free standing range behind the half wall partition behind the seating area.

The next kitchen, the one I showed first in my post, has a U-shape. Note the cool hanging ceiling lamp over the breakfast bar and the wall oven. It even has pot lights!In the first photo you see the electric range top.

Gee, what is old is new again. These features are very popular today.

Except for the curtains. I don't see these little geometric prints right now. But I do have four or five pieces in my stash!

Yesterday we met with a contractor. We are going to gut the kitchen. No more carpeted floor. We will have a dishwasher. Good by soffits, hello 48" cabinets. We will have a real venting hood and under counter lighting. A new range. Drawers instead of deep cabinets that require kneeling to get to. A backsplash. A place for trash and recycling. A kitchen we can age in.

We will move the sink to the side where the stove is. The refrigerator has already been replaced and is against another wall. The new range will go in it's place. The pantry will go, and the cabinets will run the length of the wall. Here is that wall as it was a few years ago:

Retro Renovation fans would hate me for tearing out this original kitchen. We will have slab doors and Formica counter tops, keeping to a "retro" feel.

We have made many upgrades and repairs and improvements over the last six years, but now the best part comes: major remodeling for our needs!

Fifty One Years Ago: June 1963 Trends, Fashion, Decor and The Kennedys

In June of 1963 I was ten years old and we were moving to Michigan from New York State in 1963. 

I am fifty years older now, and moving again!

Did you ever wear swim caps covered with big rubber flowers? Mom's was in turquoise and aqua. I used to borrow it when I was in swimming class in high school. It must have looked pretty dorky by 1966! Then, I was also wearing Mom's old Jantzen swim suit, a one-piece built like an exoskeleton, until she bought me a new one when I was 15.

We want to remodel the 1969 kitchen and are replacing the 1980s appliances.What kind of kitchen was modern in 1963? Colonial decorating was still in.

 We never had a dishwasher, and Mom died in 1990 without ever having owned one. I did not know that bottom drawer refrigerators were around back then either.

What foods were in the kitchen? Spam, Tang, and Bosco!

We ate on Melmac dishes.

 Everything was being made of plastic. It was new.

 We bought vacuums that had not changed much over the years.

 But the luggage was no longer cardboard or fabric, it was plastic and streamlined....and "fashionable."

Mom still collected Green Stamps and turned them in for cool things, like metal coolers in red and tan plaid.

Swimsuits were modest.

 Little girls wore cute sun sets.

The following year Skipper from Mattel came out, wearing a cute sun set.

Simplicity Patterns offered patterns for simple shifts. It looks so formless to me now.

Platinum Blonde Bombshells were considered beautiful. This Breck ad advertised products for tinted, toned or bleached hair. And suggested watching Gene Kelley in "Going My Way" to be aired on ABC-TV on Wednesday at 8:30 E.D.T.

From Bombshell to innocence, gingham for Mom and Daughter, complete with embroidery ideas.

Magazines always had a few short stories. 

We were obsessed by President Kennedy and Jackie.

It is hard to believe, but a poll conducted by Good Housekeeping found that the majority of American women were not impressed by Jacklyn Kennedy! She was not considered beautiful, women were not impressed with her television persona, and most thought too much attention was given to Jackie. And yet they also thought she was the best First Lady since Eleanor Roosevelt! People liked Jackie's intelligence, her renovation of the White House, and proficiency in foreign languages. They did not like the extensive press publicity of the Kennedy family, and 15% did not like Jackie's speech and her hair style. The women also thought she spent too much time away from her children and they wanted her to wear a hat to church.

The woman who popularized the pill box hat, which I had to wear to church age age 11, was criticized for not wearing a hat to church? 

As for President Kennedy, people did not like the Kennedy Dynasty and his big family! Was that a cloaked Anti-Catholic sentiment? They thought he was too wealthy to understand Middle America. 

Most of the panelists felt that the Kennedy's marriage was off-limits and nobody's business.

Kennedy came out ahead in mock contests against Romney and Goldwater. But the panel also gave no evidence that there were "permanently committed" to voting for Kennedy. A large majority were "uneasy about the President's propensity for accelerating the political progress of his relatives." 

The President was assassinated five months later. America quickly idolized Jackie. She is today one of the most admired First Ladies.