is a rose is a rose.
Here is a blog I wrote in 2014, with a few new images:
Recently a friend, Julie Little, brought over a big bucket of roses from her garden. There were so many roses that we had more than one bouquet.
The roses were achingly beautiful and they smelled good. But roses fade. Alas.
Luckily roses on fabric can provide timeless pleasure. Here are some to savor.
This 19th century English chintz border is from the book Textile Designs , an encyclopedia of historic fabrics compiled by Susan Meller and Joost Elffers.
Susan Meller also wrote an amazing book about Russian Textiles . It includes examples of printed fabrics, embroidery, ikats, paisleys and stripes. It shows the cloth and robes made from them. Here are some rose fabrics from that book.
In the Russian fabrics there are many rich reds: crimson, scarlet, cherry, carmine, rust and maroon.
This Suzani piece was embroidered. The designs were drawn on the cloth, then separated into panels. Various family members would embroider the separate panels which would then be sewn back together. The slight variations in the density of the stitches and the slight flaws in the registration give the piece life.
Roses line this woman’s mulisak from Khiva.
Returning to Textile Designs , you can find these roses from France (1922 and 1930):
And this bouquet, made in England for export to Portugal in the mid 1800’s.
So, gather (and stitch) your rosebuds while ye may.
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Here is a poem is by Sandra Gilbert, from her book Kissing the Bread.
Mooshka 