Annual ring ll mother's embroidery

When I mention my mother’s embroidery, a warm current often surges in my heart. Occasionally, I open the floodgates of memory and take me back to that long and tender era.

In the afternoon of late autumn, the sunshine is particularly gentle. Mother sat on the bluestone under the acacia tree, embroidering flowers and looking after the cattle that were wandering forage in the fields.

A gust of breeze blew by, and the old buffalo shook its head and said "moo" to greet the crisp autumn day. The mother looked up at the cow, smiled slightly, and continued to insert the flower needle into the embroidery cloth.

During the cloudy season, the four of us are trapped in the house. We were studying, and my mother was doing embroidery. When we were tired of studying, the three of us took turns reciting some exquisite prose poems. Mother listened quietly, occasionally raised her head, smiled knowingly, and continued to pull the needle out of the embroidery cloth.

There are many such warm scenes in my memory. My mother is always embroidering flowers leisurely. It seems to embroider the purity and tranquility of the mother's heart, and it also seems to embroider the joy and warmth of the atmosphere.

At that time, boys were not interested in learning embroidery, and my mother did not allow me to touch her embroidery. I am afraid that I will stain the embroidery and mess up the embroidery thread. So I rarely ask, I just occasionally observe from the sidelines, and I am too embarrassed to show interest in these things.

My mother’s embroidery is relatively old. First, use a pencil to outline the pattern on the plain embroidered cloth (commonly known as drawing "pattern"). Then use a round plate-sized "flower brace" (also called a flower stretcher) to flatten and tighten the part to be embroidered. Then select the embroidery thread of the appropriate color, thread the needle and thread, and embroider stitch by stitch.

My mother is clever and has a strong personality. Therefore, my mother's embroidery work is particularly delicate. A hair-thick embroidery thread, mother can split it into several strands. For a pattern the size of a fingernail, my mother would often change the embroidery threads in several colors. For a simple embroidery, the mother often has to flexibly use more than a dozen stitches.

I don’t know embroidery, and I don’t know which school my mother’s embroidery belongs to. Maybe my mother doesn’t know, it’s just something passed down from the previous generation, and she can improve and innovate appropriately. But I can tell that my mother embroidered well, with tight stitches, harmonious colors, distinct layers, and lifelike quality.

Of course, my compliments on my mother’s embroidery skills are not counted. The older girls and younger daughters-in-law who like to embroider in several nearby small mountain villages praise their mother for her good embroidery, which is really good.

The fact is that they praised, not only often, but also from different angles and in different ways. They also often ask their mothers for advice and help.

What they want to ask for advice on include "embroidering" skills such as the use of needles and matching embroidery threads; as well as "painting" skills such as composition and drawing "patterns".

Painting "flowers" is my mother's unique skill, which is a skill accumulated over a long period of time. No one else in the village knew it, no one learned it, and it was impossible to learn it. Everyone's "tricks" had to ask their mother to do it for them.

There are many kinds of "patterns" that my mother can draw, including "dragon and phoenix presenting auspiciousness", "carp leaping over the dragon gate", "mandarin ducks playing in the water", "pine, bamboo, plum orchid" and so on. Among them, the one that my mother painted and embroidered the most was the "Bing-Tiled Lotus".

Because the embroidery produced by this "pattern" is colorful, elegant and fresh. There are light green lotus leaves, dark green stems, light brown lotus roots, pink petals, golden stamens, yellow-green lotus seeds and so on.

In addition, my mother sometimes adds some clever embellishments on it, such as swimming fish, flying butterflies, jumping frogs, playing dragonflies, etc. Make the whole picture come alive.

They seek advice from their mothers in various ways. Sometimes I would find my mother in the village or on the field with my embroidery work, and come up to ask for advice; sometimes I would come home with my embroidery work in my spare time, and embroider with my mother while asking questions; sometimes I would make a special trip to her door to ask questions. Mother asked for advice.

Whenever someone asks for advice, my mother will immediately put down her work and enthusiastically and patiently help others. Sometimes I would pick up other people's embroidery work to demonstrate and talk while embroidering. Sometimes I would draw several sketches on paper for others to choose from.

My mother’s enthusiasm, coupled with her excellent embroidery skills, set off an “embroidery craze” in our remote mountain village at that time.

At that time, it was not popular to go out to work in rural areas, and there was no interesting entertainment on weekdays. Many older girls and younger wives picked up embroidery needles in their spare time.

Even my clumsy first cousin insisted on learning embroidery from my mother.

You can often see women gathering in twos and threes under the shade of trees or in small courtyards. Each person holds a flower support in his hand and colorful embroidery threads on his left arm, talking and laughing while embroidering.

Most of those jokes have something to do with their sweethearts, and I am not comfortable listening to them. I saw them occasionally bursting into laughter, and occasionally the whole room was filled with laughter. I know they are embroidering the happy time of their youth.

My mother is very willing to teach and teaches very carefully. Embroidery is not only a skill and a hobby, but also a fine tradition. Traditions naturally have to be passed down. Not to mention that it was passed down from my mother’s natal family.

People's lives were very simple at that time. Although embroidery is not of great use, it can decorate a simple life and embellish a good mood.

When a relative’s child gives a “monthly gift”, the mother often gives a pair of exquisite embroidered shoes, which attracts a lot of “tsk-tsk” sounds; when a relative’s family has a wedding event, the mother sometimes gives a pair of embroidered shoes. A pillowcase with "Mandarin ducks playing in the water" or "Dragon and Phoenix showing auspiciousness" can also be regarded as a heartfelt blessing.

I remember one time my sister saw a classmate in the class wearing a floral skirt, and she went home crying and asked her mother to buy it. My mother was reluctant to spend money, so she went to the street to pull a piece of water-red fabric, and went home to make exquisite dresses for each of her two sisters.

After it was finished, my mother embroidered flowers on the neckline and chest of the skirt. Sister wears it out, how happy and beautiful Benti is! It was a unique, customized "Mother's Love" brand "Embroidered Sisters Outfit". The classmates were so envious that even the teacher asked her sister where she bought it.

When we were in junior high school, we had to live on campus. My mother sewed a pillowcase for each of us, embroidered it with patterns of lotus flowers, lotus leaves and red carp, and tied it with ruffles. It's just that at that time, we only knew how to show off, but failed to deeply understand our mother's thoughts and cherish them.

Time flies and times change. Nowadays, it is almost impossible to see the kind of simple embroidery that my mother embroidered. My mother has not touched "flower support" for many years, her eyesight has become blurry, and that kind of embroidery has long been out of fashion.

My mother never went to school and would not express such emotion as "Although the ancient tune is self-loving, many people nowadays do not play it." However, my mother once embroidered the youth of her era into her embroidery. , embroidered with her youth and glory, and also embroidered with the warm seeds sown in my heart.

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