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The Arts and Crafts Movement of the late nineteenth century encouraged a return to hand craftsmanship. Women with the skills and desire to create useful and expressive work began doing embroidery at home. The indigo (blue) yarn of the earliest colonial embroideries gave a group of women in Deerfield, Massachusetts the idea to form the Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework. The members created original designs as well as adjusting eighteenth- and nineteenth-century patterns. Guided by the designs, the colored threads, and the high standards set by the women who started the Society, Deerfield women worked together to embroider linens for show and for sale. A "D" in a flax wheel was the Society's symbol and mark of quality.