Jane Austen Embroidery Authentic Embroidery Projects For Modern Stitchers Jennie Batchelor by Jennie Batchelor, Alison Larkin 9781911624400, 1911624407 instant download after payment.

Excerpt From: Jennie Batchelor. “Jane Austen Embroidery.” 

“We all know that Jane Austen was an accomplished novelist. Less well known is that she was also a talented stitcher, as at home holding a needle in her hand as she was wielding a pen. In an 1870 biography of his aunt, James Edward Austen-Leigh described her as ‘successful with everything that she attempted with her fingers’, whether she was plotting her novels, playing games with her nephews and nieces, or working at her needle. She was happier in her domestic employments than in her professional ones, according to her biographer. The story he shares of the secretive Jane Austen refusing to allow a creaking door at Chawton cottage to be fixed so that she could hide her scribbling from potential intruders is a familiar one. This image of the novelist rapidly concealing papers and pen presents quite a contrast to the others he tells about his aunt happily making clothes, or embroidering and crafting gifts for the poor surrounded by her family and favourite female companions. These, we are told, were some of the ‘merriest’ times of her life.1”