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A sofra is a rectangular and often embroidered floor spread that was used as a table setting in traditional, urban Ottoman houses. They were spread on the floor. A sofra sometimes served as a table itself, or sometimes a cylindrical stand was placed on top of the sofra to accommodate a food tray (tepsi).

The Needle and Bobbin Club was an organisation founded in the USA in 1916 by Gertrude Whiting, to promote and encourage research into all kinds of fabrics and textiles. The Club published a journal called The Bulletin of the Needle and Bobbin Club.

Between AD 872-1072, the Mediterranean island of Sicily was controlled by Muslim rulers. This domination led to a long period of Arab/Muslim influence on local artistic production. It was a period in which many buildings were erected and the capital of Palermo became famous for its academic and religious institutions.

A stomacher is a triangular panel covering a U- or V-shaped gap in a doublet or gown. A stomacher may be boned, part of a corset or cover the corset. Stomachers were normally very ornamental. During the latter half of the fifteenth century, many European urban men and women started to wear stomachers (which were then called a ‘placard’ or a ‘placket’) with open fronted doublets (men) and gowns (women).

There is a passing reference to a small group of embroidered fragments found in a man’s grave in Smela, near Kiev. The excavations were published by Count Alexey Alexandrovich Bobrinskoi (1852-1927) in 1887.

In the nineteenth century, there were various excavations of burial mounds near the Crimean city of Kerch. Textiles were found dating from the fourth - second centuries BC. The textiles include woven, printed, as well as embroidered forms. There are locally made pieces as well as imported examples, notably Chinese silks.

Brocatelle is a type of woven cloth comparable to a brocade, but with a design in high relief. This type of cloth has been made in Europe and elsewhere since the eighteenth century, usually on a Jacquard loom. Brocatelle normally has a firm texture, with a distinctive blistered or puffed appearance. This type of cloth was used for soft furnishings, notably curtains and upholstery.

Aunt Jane of Kentucky is a collection of nine short stories written by Eliza Calvert Hall. It was first published in Boston, USA, in 1907. Hall was the pen name of the American writer and suffragist, Eliza ‘Lida’ Calvert Obenchain (1856-1935). Throughout the book, Aunt Jane, an old country woman, uses patchwork and quilting metaphors to explore power relationships between women and men.

Manta is a Spanish word for cloak. Traditional South American mantas are square or rectangular in shape and draped down the back. They are often woven from local cotton, sheep’s wool or alpaca. In some parts of Peru, men wear embroidered mantas during dances to celebrate local Roman Catholic saints’ days.

The use of shells and beads made from bird's eggs, land snails, molluscs and sea shells is probably one of the oldest forms of decorative needlework and still used today. Sixty-five small mollusc shells (Nassarius Kraussianus), perforated with a bone tool, were found in 2004 in Blombos Cave (South Africa). They may have been strung together into necklaces or bracelets and are dated to c. 70,000 to 75,000 years ago.