Tag: mystery

HOBBY: [ˈhäbē] NOUN. An activity done regularly in one’s leisure time for pleasure. People love hobbies. Some can be pretty bizarre—clipping and dying dogs to look like wild animals; collecting back scratchers or Ronald McDonald memorabilia; extreme ironing (I’m not making this up); doing cow impressions; playing dead. I’m sure you won’t be surprised to learn that the #1 most popular hobby in the U.S. is reading. Writing comes in at #4. Needlework is a universal hobby. From the earliest times, men and women all over the world have created works of art and necessity with needle and thread (or yarn). Collecting the needlework of the past is a hobby, too. Since my protagonist in the Kate Hamilton Mystery series is an antiques dealer, I thought I’d share with you two examples of historic needlework in my own collection. Forgive my amateur photography. At a time when educating girls was considered frivolous if not pointless, the domestic arts were the main focus of their studies. One Italian proverb says, “A girl should be taught to sew and not to read, unless one wishes to make a nun of her.” This particular sampler was worked by a girl named Elizabeth Billinghurst, […]