Quilting: Keeping The Family In Stitches

Keeping the Family in Stitches

The Maiden’s Time :

This quarter, in the Wheel of the Year is about new beginnings and new projects. (Oh great, just as I finally got all of last year’s projects complete.) But in all honesty, this time, just after Yule and before Imbolc is a unique opportunity for a Pagan parent. The past isn’t that far behind. The future seems a clean slate with the return of the Sun and spring upon us. My husband, the Absent Minded Professor calls this time of year, the “Brigit Wake Up Call” .

For the Celts, Imbolc is an especially wonderful time in the Wheel as Brigit is celebrated. She is the Goddess of writers, artists and anyone associated with literature and creativity. For myself, not only being an author but also a musician, I have to chuckle at the wealth of new recording projects and musical collaborations that begin around this time. (I hear all through February, “I don’t know what came over me but I just sat down and wrote 5 songs. Think you can come over and write a harp accompaniment…tonight? I really want to get this going but I can’t explain why.) But, it was a combination of my grandmother, my daughter and a birthday gift for my husband that brought new insight to this year’s tapping of me by the Goddess Brigit. All this time I was preparing to write new music and She had other plans. I see Her three faces as I begin this project and this article.

My grandmother or Meme as I call her started talking one cold December day not too long ago about how strange it was that she and I are so much alike. “Right down to the sewing” she said. It occurred to me that she was right. I was the only girl in the family since her generation who had taken up sewing to any degree. I laughed. “Not like I wanted to ever become good at it. Remember how I got started?” I asked. My own daughter came into the kitchen and sat in my Meme’s lap. I knew from the way Libby cuddled under her chin that I was now meant to retell the story. And so, I did.

The Mother’s Realization:

Sewing, according to my group of teenage friends was not something one who wished to be cool as a teenager ever did. My mother had always worked long hours and preferred after those long days to read rather than to sew. So, when I married and found myself struggling with a baby at home and one on the way, I desperately tried to figure how to make comforting and lasting articles of warmth and clothing for them without really any money. I went to the wisest woman I knew…my grandmother; my Meme for advice. I asked her about teaching me to sew like she had for me when I was a baby. She was skeptical, at first to teach me her stitches in needlework. I had turned her down so often years before when she said a maiden should learn the technique. Like any teenage, modern girl, I rolled my eyes at such old fashioned-ness. As a new mother on a limited budget and another baby on the way, my thoughtlessness shamed me. Before long, she had me making a quilt for my one and only daughter on the way. (“That was you, Libby. I had not sewed anything save a button before you. Not even for your big brother. I thought I knew everything until I met you and your brother.”)

Next came simple pants and vests for my oldest, my son. Different clothes and finishes needed different stitches. Stitches are like people and all things in life; some are stronger than others. Meme knew the correct stitches for each situation and need as she had learned from her grandmother teaching her. This is a tradition that goes back much farther than just our family in our time.

Embroidery is really an art made with cloth or textiles. It started in Asia around 1200 BC. Thin metal wires were wrapped around string to add beauty and embellishment to silks for the royal families. Peasants soon took to the art and began embroidering linen and cotton. Certain stitches and patterns developed in different parts of China as well as India. Some showed scenes like pictures in books of nature. Others told stories that the family or clans had told around fires and meals for generations.

Around the same time, the Egyptian peasants had discovered particular stitches in mending robes. The more elaborate and decorative patterns from the mending were adopted by the higher classes. Sacred scripts about the Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, prayers, offerings and burial rites were embroidered on papyrus and placed in jars and vessels for the next life. Travelers from Persia later added wound up metal strips to the Egyptian stitches they had acquired and beadwork was born.

By the third century, robes from Crimea began to include embroidery. Italy and France became textile hubs from this trend and embellished clothing became the rage for much of Europe’s history. In Europe, geometry, oral history and family stories, natural life and love epics were illustrated on everything from royal costumes to maiden’s festival wear to castle and upper class home’s tapestries. For those who could not afford such large luxuries, pouches and purses adorned with embroidered designs and beadwork were affordable alternatives.

The Middle Ages of Europe saw textiles including metal thread (and you thought the Emperor’s New Clothes was all a fairy tale), colored and dyed wool, velvet and silk from import. Pearls and silver pieces were added near the Renaissance.

Cross-stitching made it’s way into popularity by way of Norse tradition. The Asatru also revolutionized quilting for warmth with embroidery stitches for color. The Norse clans were especially known for their introduction of the tent stitch, patchwork, smocking, the lock stitch and the chain stitch. Soon Europe’s classes and clans were including motifs, scrolls, geometrical knots and even scenes from village life in their textile arts. Men and women alike proudly wore the adorned craftsmanship.

So in my pursuit of making warm yet loving blankets and clothing for my children, a part of my ancestors were cradling them as well in each stitch. Gone were the days when maidens sewed and adorned their clothing to impress young men. (I would have been an old maid I think if my dowry would have depended upon it in my maiden years.) But mothers could still buy plain, inexpensive fabric and embroider life as seen through only her eyes for her child. I had caught on late about this magick. And what a magickal thing embroidery truly can be! Think of it; to take woven cloth and string and with one’s own hands and intention turn them into an object that brings warmth, comfort, protection and shelter.

The Crone’s Hands:

Maybe not all generations in my family decided to keep the stories and the stitches alive. Women are called to do so many things in this modern time. Through the hands of my grandmother I have learned to save a little money. Better yet, I’ve learned that no matter how much money I ever have, no blanket, nor clothing for my children or anyone for that matter can compare to something that I have sewn and embroidered with my own intention.

Brigit called me to pass along the hands of my grandmother to my daughter. It will take these fingers of mine until they reach their own Crone stage to achieve Meme’s preciseness; her straight and perfect rows and her strength in each stitch. Thus a new project in the spirit of the new turn of the Wheel begins. The Absent Minded professor has a birthday coming up around Beltane. My daughter and I have begun to embroider a new stitch taught to us by Meme. We have begun to retell and illustrate the Norse “Havamal” as a gift to my husband and her father. His ancestry and beliefs are in the Norse tradition. Our goal is to stitch the verse and illustration of the first 24 stanzas. If I’m lucky, by the time I am a crone, our gift to him will be complete. Another lesson from the wise: cherished things take time to create. Such pieces are what heirlooms are made of. From these stitches it is my hope that future generations will not roll their eyes at such magick. They will see their ancestors’ history, their pride and their skill, instead.

To learn more about continuing embroidery in your family with your own children or to just get started, I’ve found a few books I think might help. (Remember, embroidery isn’t just for daughters either. I have found that any kind of sewing teaches young men concentration in focusing, meditation and magick work as well.) I’ve also included a few simple diagrams I’ve drawn to give those who aren’t interested in buying books on the subject but might still want to try this ancient art.

Books:

“A History of Costume” by Carl Kohler, ISBN# 0-4862-1030-8

“Charted Peasant Designs from Saxon Transylvania” by Heinz Edgar Kiewe, ISBN# 0-4862-3425-8

As an added note, if there are those who wish to sew and embroider but have no family for whom to share this Pagan craftsmanship, it is my suggestion that it be taught to senior citizens. Volunteering to help and or teach even simple stitches brings such a sense of accomplishment to those who wish to learn something new. Who knows? Maybe they have no one to whom to pass their cherished heirloom stitches. You may receive more than you could possibly have thought! Teaching simple stitches to children is also a great way of sharing in your craft as well as your ancestry. For more ideas on Pagan stitching, there is a free newsletter anyone may receive via email. It focuses on projects that parents and children can share in and much includes needlework. Sign up to receive the newsletter monthly by visiting craftingthecraft@egroups.com.