My Early Days-9

This is very dated with the avocado green background but the stitch work is still beautiful.  It is a form of embroidery called Crewel.  Here is what Wikipedia has to say about it:

Crewel embroidery, or Crewelwork, is a decorative form of surface embroidery  using wool  and a variety of different embroidery stitches  to follow a design outline applied to the fabric. The technique is at least a thousand years old. It was used in the Bayeux Tapestry , in Jacobean embroidery  and in the Quaker Tapestry  sewn in the 1980s.
The origin of the word crewel is unknown but is thought to come from an ancient word describing the curl in the staple, the single hair of the wool. Crewel wool  has a long staple; it is fine and can be strongly twisted. Modern crewel wool is a fine, 2-ply or 1-ply yarn available in many different colours.

I made this for my Mother in 1971-72 and it was a true labor of love.  We were allowed to do hand-work or read between cases at work.  I was an X-ray technologist at the time and I do believe that is no longer true in most cases.  All my co-workers were doing this or that and I became interested in stitch work.  This was by far my most ambitious project.  There were so many different types of stitches and without the instruction sheet, it would never have been possible.

I don't know what to do with it now.  I keep it "just because" I made it.  It does not fit into any room nor do I wish to display it.  However, I am proud to bring it here and discuss the whys ans wherefores of it all!