Matt or Joel (from How to Money podcast) (1:35)

I'm telling you, the guy was a spy. Listen to the Secret World of Roald Dahl on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Bijan Robinson (1:46)

Everyone needs to take care of their mental health, even running back Bijan Robinson.

Matt or Joel (from How to Money podcast) (1:50)

When I'm on the field and feeling the pressure, I usually just take a deep breath. When I'm just breathing and seeing what's in front of me, everything just slow. It just makes me feel great before I run the play.

Bijan Robinson (2:00)

Just like Bijan, we all need a strong mental game on and off the field. Make a game plan for your mental health at loveyourmindplaybook.org Love youe Mind. Brought to you by the Huntsman Mental Health foundation, the Arthur M. Blank Family foundation, and the AD Council.

Holly Fry (2:16)

Welcome to Stuff youf Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartradio. Hello and Happy Friday. I'm Holly Fry.

Tracy V. Wilson (2:30)

And I'm Tracy V. Wilson.

Holly Fry (2:32)

We had a cozy week of embroidery talk.

Tracy V. Wilson (2:34)

We did.

Holly Fry (2:35)

Which I kind of need right now. I love embroidery. I have a very. I have very distinct memories of various embroidery points in my life. I remember the first time I tried it and why. It harkens back to that thing that I talked about with the koalas, where I saw a project in one of my mom's sewing magazines, and I was like, I want to do that. And it was a quilt that was made that had. It used gingham fabric in it. And the gingham was used as the grid basis for kind of a very loose style of cross stitch. And I was like, I want to do that. And I did some of those, and they were very fun. You've done beaded embroidery before, right? You did a costume piece?

Tracy V. Wilson (3:25)

Yeah, most of what I've done has been cross stitched, but then I did do some costumes that had, like, I wasn't using the gridded embroidery fabric, but, like, I did a bunch of beadwork with embroidery onto ribbon as part of a costume. And pretty much that was just like me copying as best as I could something that had been in a movie.

Holly Fry (3:56)

Yeah.

Tracy V. Wilson (3:56)

So I did not learn any, like, actual stitch techniques beyond what I learned as part of cross stitching. Like, I learned to cross stitch. There are some other embroidery stitches that are sometimes used as part of a cross stitch pattern.

Holly Fry (4:12)

Yeah.

Tracy V. Wilson (4:12)

Like, I remember doing a cross stitch pattern that had a border around the edge that was a different non cross embroidery stitch.

Holly Fry (4:22)

Right. Like a satin stitch or something.

Tracy V. Wilson (4:24)

Yeah, yeah. And so that, like, that's what I am most familiar with than my kind of freeform attempts to copy something that was on screen.

Holly Fry (4:37)

I have. Oh, I guess it is too. I have two embroidery projects that are attempts to copy things that appeared on screen, one of which I devoted so much time and energy to and even traveled for. Which is the best costume of all time in my heart. Princess Leia's bespin outfit. Like the rust. And I'm so in love with that thing. And when it appeared, Gosh, that would have been 24 years ago. I think it was on tour as part of the Smithsonian's costume. They'll do like the Star wars they did for a while, the Magic of Myth one that toured around. I feel like right now the bespin dress is touring only in Europe and not here. I'm not sure where. Or maybe it's not on tour at all right now, but I love it. And I literally. We went when it was in Houston because that was as close as it was coming. And we drove over to Houston because we were too poor for Plane tickets then. And we literally. I sat in front of that dress in the museum display for two solid days, about eight hours a day, trying to recreate the pattern and take notes on all of the stitching. And then I did a version of that costume. Incidentally, if you've ever downloaded a hand drawn copy of that pattern from the Internet, it was probably mine. It got passed around a lot of costume sites after that because I uploaded it and I did that one, and then I did some for an Amidala gown in the 90s and early 2000s. But where I really fell in love with embroidery, I remember very distinctly, like, at a level I had not ever before in my life, was in. I think it was 2008 in Chicago. There was an exhibit of dragon robes, other Chinese embroidery, and I lost my mind. Yeah. Like, it just was like. I mean, I've certainly grown up around crafty people, and I had seen lots of embroidery, but that was like a level and a style of design I had never really seen up close before.

Tracy V. Wilson (6:42)

Yeah.

Holly Fry (6:43)

Pictures never do it justice. Even beautiful pictures, like, are not the same as when you were standing there and you can see the light glinting off the silk threads in a very specific way. It's so beautiful. And it made me absolutely crazy for embroidery when I worked as a library acquisition specialist for about a decade. At the end of the year, when you have budget left, use it on things that are not necessarily, like, curriculum development stuff. It's just collection development. And I would always try to sneak some good Chinese embroidery history books in there. That school that I used to work for has a really good resource, which is funny to me, but I love it so much. Yeah.

Tracy V. Wilson (7:28)

When I learned to cross stitch, I was a kid and I had seen beautiful embroidery pieces, and I was not a patient child in any way. And the idea of what I saw in, like, the embroidery pieces that were not cross stitch that I saw just absolutely overwhelmed me in terms of even thinking about what would be involved to create something like that. Yeah. So it was like cross stitch was as far as I could. Yeah.

Holly Fry (8:04)

I don't know that I would describe myself as a patient person, but I am certainly capable of hyperfocus. Yeah.

Tracy V. Wilson (8:10)

Yeah.

Holly Fry (8:11)

Well, by the way, when I was.

Tracy V. Wilson (8:14)

Making those costumes, I spent a lot of time on them. I also spent a lot of time on them watching every commentary that was released for the Lord of the Rings movies.

Holly Fry (8:25)

Yeah.

Tracy V. Wilson (8:26)

And at that point, like, I had seen the movies so many times, I knew them basically by heart. So it was more like I was listening to the commentary while I was doing it.

Holly Fry (8:35)

Yeah.

Tracy V. Wilson (8:35)

I also at that time had a cat named Anastasia and Anastasia wanted to get into my lap while I was trying to do this and I would be like, no, baby, you can't get on my. I have this on. You cannot also. And she would get on the couch and she would like kind of crouch down and she would slowly inch one paw forward and then the other paw. Like if I do this slow enough, she won't notice that I'm getting on her lap.

Holly Fry (9:07)

She won't realize I am just on the lap. Yeah, yeah. Kitty smarts. I have great memories of when I did that bespin lea embroidery for a couple of different reasons. One is that I was, I started a little too late for the thing that I wanted to have it ready for, which meant that I was spending long hours. Like I would embroider until like three in the morning. And I watched so much Dragon Ball Z because that's what was running on Cartoon Network at those hours. I got all my Super Saiyan time in. But also my boss at the time, who was a very cool and kind boss, started doing like embroidery blockouts for my time to make sure I had time to work on it. So it would be like after three if nobody has anything pressing, just sit at your desk and do embroidery. Yeah.

Tracy V. Wilson (9:56)

Which was the coolest.

Holly Fry (9:58)

Everybody needs it. I have such great memories of that. Unlike the people we normally talk about on the show, we are living in a time when Internet connectivity is a standard part of life for most people. And there is literally no way we could research and prepare our podcast without the Internet. If connectivity goes down for me, it can be really hard to make up that lost time. And for businesses, Internet connectivity is even more of a necessity. Spectrum Business keeps businesses of all sizes connected seamlessly with fast and reliable Internet, advanced Wi Fi, phone, TV and mobile services. Spectrum business offers 100% US based customer support and they do it 24 7. That means you can always stay up and running no matter what hours your business keeps. Spectrum Business also will tailor connectivity solutions just for you. They will put a package together that is built for your business budget. Millions of business owners rely on Spectrum Business to keep them connected. So visit spectrum.combusiness to learn more. Restrictions apply. Service is not available in all areas.

Jenna Kim Jones (11:14)

Breaking news everybody. Not everything is terrible. I repeat, not everything is terrible. The ripple effect with Jenna Kim Jones is proof that the Internet, it hasn't ruined humanity entirely.

Holly Fry (11:25)

Let me start by saying it's a great day to be a gray shirt team. Rubicon, you know, it truly is a team. Those folks, myself included, all had one desire, which is helping folks in disaster.

Matt or Joel (from How to Money podcast) (11:35)

Trying to be a little bit of.

Holly Fry (11:37)

Hope in a really, really bad situation.

Jenna Kim Jones (11:39)

It's like magic, you guys. So put down your doom scroller and pick up your faith in humanity and join me, Jenna, for the Ripple Effect. It's a reminder that you can start a ripple that changes everything. You really can. We give just that nugget of hope helping other people. For some of our gray shirts, it's during a time when they need help and by helping others, it helps them. Listen to the ripple effect with Jenna Kim Jones on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What if mind control is real?

Bijan Robinson (12:14)

If you could control the behavior of anybody around you, what kind of life would you have?

Jenna Kim Jones (12:17)

Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car?

Bijan Robinson (12:21)

When you look at your car, you're.

Holly Fry (12:22)

Going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings.

Jenna Kim Jones (12:25)

Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you?

Holly Fry (12:28)

I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused.

Jenna Kim Jones (12:31)

Can you get someone to join your cult? NLP was used on me to access my subconscious. Nlp, AKA Neuro linguistic programming, is a blend of hypnosis, linguistics, and psychology. Fans say it's like finally getting a user manual for your brain.

Bijan Robinson (12:48)

It's about engineering consciousness.

Jenna Kim Jones (12:50)

Mind Games is the story of nlp, its crazy cast of disciples, and the fake doctor who invented it at a new age commune and sold it to guys in suits. He stood trial for murder and got acquitted. The biggest mind game of all, nlp, might actually work.

Holly Fry (13:07)

This is wild.

Jenna Kim Jones (13:09)

Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you you get your podcasts.

Tracy V. Wilson (13:15)

New year, new goals.

Matt or Joel (from How to Money podcast) (13:16)

And in this economy, a better money plan is more necessary than ever. I am Matt. And I'm Joel. We are from the how to Money podcast. And every week we help you to spend smarter, save more, and make sense of what's going on out there. If you want 2026 to be the year you finally feel in control of your money, we're here to give you the tools and advice to help you make it happen. Listen to how to Money on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Holly Fry (13:49)

I also will say that while I was researching this, since then I have gotten served all of the ads for every embroidery, everything on the Internet and I don't mind that at all. It's fine to me.

Tracy V. Wilson (13:59)

Yeah.

Holly Fry (14:00)

One of the things that we did not talk about Much in this episode is the rise in various parts of Europe, but especially in England. I think Spain had some as well of embroidery schools. I want to say in the 1760s, because there was all of a sudden this huge rash of schools that popped up with the intent that they would set up these schools in areas that had a lot of blue collar families so that their daughters could learn a trade. Okay. And most of them, some of them still exist. They have evolved over time in their mission where they're now like a more generalized education resource. But it was kind of fascinating, but there's not much to say of it other than that. Like, yeah, yes. This gave some girls a skill that they might not have otherwise learned.

Tracy V. Wilson (14:44)

Yeah.

Holly Fry (14:45)

You know, like an early vocation school. And now embroidery is sometimes taught in schools as part of other things, like home ec, but not a lot.

Tracy V. Wilson (14:53)

No.

Holly Fry (14:54)

I know there is a lot of concern that a lot of embroidery is embroidery. Education has gone away. So there are people that really love it as an art that are concerned about its future, which is why the embroiderers guilds are so important.

Tracy V. Wilson (15:06)

Yeah. I'm pretty sure my. I had things that my mom taught me, but some of it was either through the 4H Club or the Agricultural Extension Service. And the place where I grew up would have classes that cost some small amount of money that basically covered your supplies and stuff. And that's where I learned to do a lot of different craft type things.

Holly Fry (15:34)

Yeah. Yeah. My mom did not teach me embroidery. She was a really skilled stitcher. Yeah. But she did not get into the needlework stuff.

Tracy V. Wilson (15:44)

So mom taught me mostly sewing. And now that I'm really thinking about it, I'm like, did anyone actually teach me to cross stitch or did I just teach myself that? I am not sure. My dad's sister cross stitched a lot. She may have given me some tips, but, man, I don't really remember now.

Holly Fry (16:04)

I had a very funny moment once where I was working for a company and it was such a lovely reference to it. That was unexpected. But we were in like a company meeting where a variety of people were being recognized for their contributions. And one of the VPs that was giving these out started talking about embroidery as a. A way to talk about this one person's work. And it was such a beautiful way to use discussion of it where she was saying, one of the things you learn about if study embroidery, if you know an embroiderer, is that the true mark of quality is that the back side of it is as pretty as the front side. And she's saying, and this person's like, work on the back end of our technical stuff is just as good and perfect as anything that would be forward facing to users. And I was like, oh, that's a beautiful analogy to bring embroidery in to close out. I have what I find to be embroidery comedy.

Tracy V. Wilson (16:57)

Okay.

Holly Fry (16:58)

Which is. Once again, we gotta talk about the Bayou Tapestry some more. I feel like it's been very frequent in our discussions lately, and I am still figuring out when I'm gonna get to see the. See it while it's in London. But the great thing is that if you listen. If anybody listened to the episode that Sarah and deblina did about the Bayou Tapestry, you know that there is a copy of it that was made that's in Kensington. Mm. Which is interesting in and of itself because you can't really, like, one to one duplicate something like that. Especially because a lot of it does look like it was freehand embroidered. But it's a very good copy. But with one of the funniest pieces of editing to me ever. Yeah. If you've ever looked closely at the Bayou Tapestry, there are some people on it that have no pants on.

Tracy V. Wilson (17:51)

We talked about that a little bit in an unearthed one time.

Holly Fry (17:56)

Right. But on the Kensington copy, they made the editorial decision to add pants to those people.

Tracy V. Wilson (18:02)

Okay. Funny if I remember correctly, because this is a couple of unearths ago, we talked about a paper where someone had researched the penises that are depicted.

Holly Fry (18:17)

Yeah.

Tracy V. Wilson (18:17)

And a lot of those were on horses. But it also looked like over the years there had been some, like, scaling back of them in, like, repair and restoration work. Yeah.

Holly Fry (18:31)

That big 18th century restoration might have included some of that. Yeah. Which is also interesting because that is the stuff that faded the most. So it would make that kind of study a little bit tricky. Yeah.

Tracy V. Wilson (18:42)

Yeah.

Holly Fry (18:43)

Like, is this an editing or is this a repair that just didn't go quite right in terms of having longevity? And I haven't read that paper, so I don't know, but it's very funny. Yeah. We gotta put pants on these people. Yeah. I love the Bayou Tapestry. Pants off. Dance off. I think it's the best part. It's funny some guys with no pants carrying dogs.

Tracy V. Wilson (19:05)

Yeah.

Holly Fry (19:05)

I don't know why. I think that's great. I'm very excited to hopefully see it in person in the coming year. I'll get all weird about it and it'll be great. And it's a great excuse to visit London, which is a city I also love. Yeah.

Tracy V. Wilson (19:17)

I Have never been there.

Holly Fry (19:19)

You haven't? Oh, man. I love it. I love it. Yeah. It's just a beautiful, fun place and there's lots of yummy food. I know there's a big thing going on right now in terms of pubs and some new regulations that they're worried are going to endanger the way that pubs operate.

Tracy V. Wilson (19:38)

Oh.

Holly Fry (19:38)

So I'll be curious how that all goes and hopefully it'll. Pubs will endure because I love a good pub meal. Delicious. Look out, London. I'm coming. And I'm gonna eat all the bangers and mash because favorite meal in the world. If I'm ever on death row, that's what I'm picking. And I will do it. I'll eat it while I do embroidery of people who may or may not be wearing pants. Yeah. I just think it's funny if you have time coming up this weekend that you are off, free time to yourself, the dream, and you like to do embroidery. Maybe it's a great time. I'm definitely going to be doing more embroidery this year because of this. It, like, reignited some things. I also. One of the reasons that I was able to do this episode, I mentioned that we had some time off, but also, I have been very slowly. It's taking me more than a year to reorg my sewing room. And at one point I had several books that I had opened and stuck on a shelf that had fabric on it. And unless without even realizing it, I had stacked fabric on top of the books and I'd been like, where are those books? I don't know. And when I cleared everything off of those shelves, I was like, here are those books. Ding dong. So I rediscovered them, which made it great and easier for me to work on this. And now I'm like, I need to get back to this this year.

Tracy V. Wilson (20:54)

Yeah.

Holly Fry (20:54)

As a fun way to make delight in my life. Listen, there are going to be some Rhodians embroidered at my house. Maybe some kitties. I'm still thinking about that Egyptian cat tattoo. That's a little. Very simple embroidery piece. I'm into all of it. It's going to be an embroidery year. I'll be doing that in my free time some of the time. But to go back, if this isn't time that you have off this weekend, I still hope that you get some time to do whatever it is that nurtures your soul and makes you feel good about yourself, even if that's sitting on your couch. That's a perfectly acceptable way to spend time, quiet time or not. Quiet time. If you're watching TV cranked, I don't care. Just whatever makes you happy, we need it. We will be right back here tomorrow with a classic episode and then on Monday we'll have something brand new.

Tracy V. Wilson (21:45)

Stuff youf Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

Jenna Kim Jones (22:00)

What if mind control is real?

Bijan Robinson (22:02)

If you could control the behavior of anybody around you, what kind of life would you have?

Jenna Kim Jones (22:05)

Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car?

Holly Fry (22:09)

When you look at your car, you're gonna become overwhelmed with such good feelings.

Jenna Kim Jones (22:13)

Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you?

Holly Fry (22:15)

I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused through.

Jenna Kim Jones (22:19)

Can you get someone to join your cult? NLP was used on me to access my subconscious mind games. A new podcast, exploring nlp, AKA Neuro Linguistic Programming. Is it a self help miracle, a shady hypnosis scam, or both? Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Holly Fry (22:40)

On June 11, 1998, a deputy from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department went missing. Hey, if they'll kill a cop and.

Matt or Joel (from How to Money podcast) (22:48)

Bury him, what are they going to do to me?

Jenna Kim Jones (22:50)

What really happened to the missing deputy? Valley of Shadows, a new series from Pushkin Industries about crime and corruption in California's high desert. Listen to Valley of shadows on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Matt or Joel (from How to Money podcast) (23:11)

You know Roald Dahl, he thought up Willy Wonka in the bfg. But did you know he was a spy? In the new podcast, the Secret World of Roald Dahl, I'll tell you that story and much, much more.

Holly Fry (23:23)

What?

Matt or Joel (from How to Money podcast) (23:24)

You probably won't believe it either.

Holly Fry (23:25)

Was this before you wrote his stories? It must have been okay.

Jenna Kim Jones (23:29)

I don't think that's true.

Matt or Joel (from How to Money podcast) (23:31)

I'm telling you, the guy was a spy. Listen to the Secret World of Roald Dahl on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Bijan Robinson (23:42)

Everyone needs to take care of their mental health. Even running back Bijan Robinson.

Matt or Joel (from How to Money podcast) (23:46)

When I'm on the field and feeling the pressure, I usually just take a deep breath. When I'm just breathing and seeing what's in front of me, everything just slows down. It just makes me feel great before I run the play.

Bijan Robinson (23:56)

Just like Bijan. We all need a strong mental game on and off the field. Make a game plan for your mental health at loveyourmindplaybook.org Love your mind. Brought to you by the Huntsman Mental Health foundation, the Arthur M. Blank Family foundation and the Ad Council.

Tracy V. Wilson (24:10)

This is an iHeart podcast.

Holly Fry (24:13)

Guaranteed Human.