Needlework, needle craft, needle art — whatever you want to call it —

 I was very fortunate to have known one of my great-grandmothers.  She was born in 1875 and lived until 1978.  She was alive for my birth and for my first child’s birth.  She was a much beloved member of my father’s family, a true matriarch.  She was resourceful.  She always had plants growing — mostly in old coffee cans — on her front porch, she sewed, knitted, crocheted and quilted.  She cooked a lot because during the depression and during World War II her home was the gathering place — they would share their ration cards and make it work.  

In about 1935 her husband, seen with her above, up and died.  So, what did my resourceful great grandma do?  She turned her little white Victorian house into a boarding house and went to work in the school cafeteria.  She made it work.

When I was young and my dad worked at night we would walk (just around the corner) to her house to visit.  My mother really did like her grandmother in law.  So one night we took our little after dinner walk to Granny’s house and found her piecing a quilt.

I was fascinated.

She and my grandmother were piecing squares about l”, maybe l.5” in just a grid and I wanted to do it so badly, it was absolutely mesmerizing to me.  So Granny dug around in her stash bag and gave me some of the squares and a needle and thread.  My mother was horrified.  I was probably just 5.  She just couldn’t imagine me with something as dangerous as a needle — my Granny just laughed — she was a pioneer child after all and not at all surprised by a 5 year old with a needle in her hand.

I sewed my squares together with huge stitches and was so proud.  She asked if I was done.  I said no it wasn’t quite finished.  So, I rummaged around in the drawer of her treadle sewing machine and found some rick-rack and a little jingle bell.  I sewed the rick rack around the edge and the jingle bell to one corner.  There! It was done!  My first quilt square.  The first of many.  I kept that square for long time and then somehow it disappeared.  I still wish I had it.

My mother introduced me to embroidery.  She bought some muslin cup towels, an iron on design — it was kittens doing daily chores — and created the towel for me to embroidery.  I loved it.  I never finished it.  It was truly a hot mess.  I can’t show you photos of that either because they disappeared as well — too many moves, a fire, a minimalist mother who liked to “clear the clutter”.  Oh well.  

Then I took up needlepoint.  I enjoyed it but not as much as the genre I settled on — cross stitch.  I absolutely love cross stitch.  I do it just for the love of doing it with no plan to “use” it.  Due to my broken arm I had to stop the project I was working on and put it all away.  Recently I was browsing the subject on Pinterest and noticed the trend toward framing cross stitch projects in hoops.  I loved the look, the ease and the price!

I have a really dismal stairwell so I though that would be a great way to display the work I had done.  I really like small things and I like the way the wall is looking.  I still have more to do but I have made a start — 

I have added more since this photo was taken — I am hanging them on wooden thumb tacks so I don’t make huge holes in the wall — goodness knows I wouldn’t want to destroy all that blah beigeness! Anyway, nobody goes up there but us and it is sort of fun to look at the small pictures. 

The one in the brown frame I did for my mom, and one for my aunt, for Christmas because they collected thimbles.  The little blue mitten was purchased from a Ukrainian stitcher at the beginning of the war — selling her patterns was the way she was still able to make a living.  The piece right above the light switch is St. Louis Cathedral — I purchased the pattern during a visit to New Orleans.  I have more pieces from other places and will get them all framed eventually — I have already bought the hoops!

So, anyway, that is my take on needle art, or work, or craft or whatever you want to call it.