Table of contents for Summer 2019 in PieceWork

Exhibitions Berkeley, California: May 18, 2019–May 5, 2020. Shawls of Lace: A New Beginning, at Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles. (510) 843-7290; www.lacismuseum.org. Los Angeles, California: Through July 28. Power of Pattern: Central Asian Ikats from the David and Elizabeth Reisbord Collection, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. (323) 857-6010; www.lacma.org. District of Columbia: Through June 23. Empresses of China’s Forbidden City, 1644–1912, at the Freer|Sackler. (202) 633-1000; www.freersackler.si.edu. Evanston, Illinois: Through July 21. Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange across Medieval Saharan Africa, at The Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University. (847) 491-4000; www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu. Baltimore, Maryland: October 5, 2019–October 12, 2020. Spectrum of Fashion: Highlights from the Fashion Archives at the Maryland Historical Society. www.mdhs.org. Boston, Massachusetts: Through August 25. Gender…

The word “sampler” comes from the old French essemplaire or from the Latin exemplum. Historically, samplers were means of developing or demonstrating needlework skills and of recording patterns. In an age when wives and mothers had to make household linens and undergarments, needlework skills were essential. Decorative needlework was considered an appropriate pastime for young girls (for boys as well, although only occasionally) and for those with the leisure time to pursue it. But for most wives and mothers, sewing was probably just another chore that had to be done. The materials and techniques used to create the samplers no doubt depended largely on what was available to the makers. Early Scottish samplers were most often sewn with silk thread on a linen ground, but in later samplers, a fine…

The Sampler Consortium is an international membership organization dedicated to the study of historic samplers and related girlhood embroideries. Members include scholars from diverse disciplines, curators of museums and historical societies, genealogists, librarians, collectors, dealers, publishers, attorneys, needlework teachers, designers, and “stitchers.” Also represented are more than 35 museums or historical societies with collections of early girlhood needlework and more than 180 private collectors. The goals of the Sampler Consortium are to advance the study of historic samplers and other girlhood embroideries; to increase access to information and research relevant to the study of historic samplers and girlhood embroideries; and to design, develop, and support projects that advance the study of historic samplers and other girlhood embroideries. The Sampler Consortium publishes an online newsletter once a month. For more information…

The Hirschsprung Collection is a small, charming Copenhagen art museum founded by the wealthy Danish tobacco manufacturer Heinrich Hirschsprung (1836–1908) and his wife, Pauline (1845–1912). Heinrich and Pauline began collecting Danish paintings in 1866. Their collection eventually grew to include works from the Danish Golden Age of Painting, as well as contemporary works by the Skagen painters, who gathered in the northernmost part of Denmark to paint en plein air, and the Funen painters, who met in an art colony on the Danish island of Funen. Heinrich became a close friend and patron of Peder Severin Krøyer (1851–1909), a Skagen painter who made a number of family portraits of Heinrich, Pauline, and their five children. One of these, The Hirschsprung Family Portrait painted in 1881, shows a happy family with…

Attributed to May Morris (1862–1938), this elegant and classic floral design is a versatile motif that can be used to embellish table linens, clothing, bags and purses, and much more. Melinda Barta embroidered the design on douppioni silk and appliquéd the finished pieces on each end of a velveteen table runner. The fresh summerlike design pays homage to the very talented May Morris, daughter of William Morris (1834–1896). Both daughter and father left their stamps on the Arts and Crafts world. MATERIALS • Caron Collection Soie Cristale, 100% silk 12-strand thread, 6 yard (5.5 m)/skein, 1 skein each of #1032 Olive Gray, #1146 Golden Brown, #2031 Brown Rose Dark, #2032 Brown Rose Medium, #2035 Brown Rose Very Light, #5004 Sage Green, #6021 Brown Purple, #7053 Cornflower• Douppioni fabric, 100% silk,…

Deeper than Indigo: Tracing Thomas Machell, Forgotten Explorer Jenny Balfour Paul Surrey, England: Medina Publishing, 2015. Hardbound, 320 pages, £18.99. ISBN 978-1-909339-53-8. Estonian Knitting 2: Socks and Stockings Anu Pink Türi, Estonia: Saara Publishing House, 2018. Hardbound, 384 pages, €36.80. ISBN 978-9949-7268-2-0. Fray: Art + Textile Politics Julia Bryan-Wilson Chicago, Illinois: The University of Chicago Press, 2017. Hardbound, 326 pages, $55. ISBN 978-0-226-07781-9. Mending Matters: Stitch, Patch, and Repair Your Favorite Denim & More Katrina Rodabaugh New York: Abrams Books, 2018. Hardbound, 224 pages, $24.99. ISBN 978-1-4197-2947-0. Spectrum: Heritage Patterns and Colors Introduction by Ros Byam Shaw New York: Thames & Hudson, 2018. Hardbound, 256 pages, $34.95. ISBN 978-0-500-48026-7.…

Embroidered Stories: Scottish Samplers ran at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh from October 26, 2018, to April 21, 2019. The museum currently holds some 270 samplers in its collection, around half of which are Scottish. Leslie B. Durst’s intended bequest of her Scottish samplers (currently about 550) to the National Museums of Scotland will be a highly important addition to the national collections. Visit the museum’s website: www.nms.ac.uk. I wrote about the exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland and included samplers not seen here in one of my “Postcard from Scotland” blog posts for the Needlework section of Interweave’s website. Visit www.interweave.com/article/needlework/postcard-from-scotland-stories-samplers.…

The stewardship of three historic buildings is the primary function of the Lincoln County Historical Association (LCHA) in Maine. The buildings—the Pownalborough Court House (1761) in Dresden, the Old Jail (1811) in Wiscasset, and the Chapman-Hall House (1754) in Damariscotta—are now museums and “feature collections of textiles and costumes, tools, furniture, baskets, housewares, photographs, maps, manuscripts, and other ephemera that help to tell Lincoln County’s stories.” For hours and addresses for each, along with more information, contact LCHA, PO Box 61, Wiscasset, ME 04578; (207) 882-6817; www.lincolncountyhistory.org.…

Although the socks in nineteenth-century Danish paintings appear to be knitted in plain stockinette stitch, I wanted to design a patterned sock for a companion project to my article. Accordingly, I turned to the star motif common to the Danish nattrøjer, a traditional knitted garment worn by Danish peasant women in the nineteenth century. Although nattrøjers are often called “nightshirts” in English, natsjorte is the actual Danish word for nightshirts. Nattrøjer is more accurately translated as “night jacket” or “bed jacket.” The Danish scholar Maj Ringgard, a conservator at the National Museum of Denmark, notes that the nattrøjer references to a night-time garment are “puzzling” because Danish peasants wore nattrøjers during the day under sleeveless bodices or jackets. According to Ringgard, “[s]ome say they even wore these when going to…

On a visit to Interweave, Susan Strawn, a PieceWork contributing editor, brought the pair of vintage crocheted socks shown on page 46. She had received them as a gift from a friend with an antiques/collectibles business. I fell in love with their blending of techniques and eventually offered to try to re-create them. It was a blur of counting stitches, drawing charts, and untangling dangling threads—rewarding yet so humbling as I repeatedly failed to replicate these extraordinary socks. Going over each stitch of the original allowed me to experience the work alongside the maker as she or he snuck in an increase to make the colorwork repeat match up or embroidered over a stitch done in the wrong color. It’s a comforting personal bond to be able to laugh and…

Most young girls have hopes and dreams. For some, those ideals come and go like the passing of the wind. Others cling to their aspirations, striving for years to make them come true. Martha Ann Erskine Ricks was one who held to her belief that she could achieve what others thought unlikely. Though she was a poor Liberian woman, Martha Ann Ricks sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to meet Queen Victoria (1819–1901) and made headlines with her gift of a handmade satin quilt. Born into slavery in the southern United States in 1817, Martha Ann was the daughter of George M. Erskine (circa 1779–1830), a former slave whose freedom had been purchased by Presbyterian pastor Isaac Anderson (1780–1857). Erskine later became a Presbyterian minister himself, traveling throughout the eastern and…

Prior to the advent of the sewing machine, handsewing was done with cotton, silk, and linen threads, mostly sold in hanks. Although these threads worked well enough for handsewing, only the most expensive fine linens and silks were durable enough to work in sewing machines. The sewing machine spawned the sewing machine thread industry. The first to answer the call were the Clark Brothers, thread manufacturers from Paisley, Scotland. In 1863, George A. Clark (1824–1873), William Clark (dates unknown), and Alexander Clark (1837–1877) formed a U.S. company, and by 1864, they were operating a large mill in Newark, New Jersey, to create spooled, supple, stronger cotton threads for machine sewing. They improved their threads and in the 1880s developed a stronger-still, six-cord cabled thread called Clark’s “Our New Thread,” or…

For over 300 years, the elegant lace shawls from Orenburg, Russia beguiled knitters and collectors alike. While many lace knitters may be acquainted with the delicate “gossamer webs” for which Orenburg is famous, in this online workshop Galina Khmeleva focuses on the “warm shawl,” a much sturdier, yet more luxurious cousin seldom found outside the region. Through a series of instructional videos, interview segments, and archival photographs, this online workshop will cover a brief history, tools and materials, 10 basic motifs, the unique construction of the warm shawl, how to wash, block, and finish your shawl, and so much more. Plus, this online workshop also features downloadable charts and 2 full patterns for an Orenburg warm shawl. Learn more about the Orenburg Warm Shawl at Interweave.com…

Embroidered samplers were originally a way to practice and record stitches, and they provided tangible evidence of needlework skills. They are also windows into the past, recording details of lives and providing glimpses of personal stories. It was this combination of embroidery and personal and social history that captivated Leslie B. Durst, American collector, philanthropist, and supporter of the arts. I met Leslie last year at the opening of the exhibition Embroidered Stories: Scottish Samplers at the Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. The exhibition showcased seventy Scottish samplers from Leslie’s collection. “These embroideries have so many stories to tell, and I just love the title of the exhibition—Embroidered Stories—it’s the perfect way to describe samplers,” Leslie notes. With more than 1,200 samplers, her collection is one of the largest and…

Sock knitting is a recurrent motif in Danish paintings of the nineteenth century. During the Golden Age of Danish Painting (circa 1810 to 1850), Danish artists painted portraits of middle-class women knitting socks to illustrate the values of hard work and industriousness that the Danish middle class espoused. Furthermore, in portraits that are otherwise devoid of emotion, sock knitting symbolized the knitter’s affection for the intended sock recipient. As Anna Schram Vejlby, a curator at the Hirschsprung Collection, asserts in her article “Diligence and Emotion: Knitting in Danish Golden Age Portraiture”: “The knitting of stockings in portraits . . . became a tactile sign of romantic and maternal love . . . a textile symbol of emotion. A young woman knitting for her future husband, or [a] mother making stockings…

Britain’s nineteenth-century Arts and Crafts movement had a curious relationship with Victorian notions of social advancement. Whereas proponents of the Industrial Revolution encouraged mechanization and new technology, people in the Arts and Crafts movement looked back to the Middle Ages. Both camps firmly believed in progress—the improvement or even perfectability of the human condition—yet one group looked to the future while the other favored a return to the past. Best known through the works of William Morris (1834–1896), Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882), and Edward Burne-Jones (1833–1898), the British Arts and Crafts movement represents one of several directions taken in fine and decorative arts from the middle to late nineteenth century. Morris and his friends combined concepts of art, design, and workmanship from others; they in turn inspired later trends such…

Author Hubert Howe Bancroft mentions Martha Ann Ricks’s quilt in his account of the exposition in The Book of the Fair: An Historical and Descriptive Presentation of the World’s Science, Art, and Industry, as Viewed through the Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893, published in 1893. Here is a portion of page 381 from the book: In the extreme northwest corner of the main building is the Liberian exhibit, which, though small in size, displays to excellent advantage the resources of the West African republic. . . . As to implements, weapons, clothing, and curios illustrative of life in Liberia, there are bracelets of iron, brass, and copper, leather bags and water bottles, blue and white cloths, warriors’ caps, and women’s skirts and headdresses of grass, with leather charms, hideous…

Numerous inventors, marketers, and lawyers were involved in the history of inventing a practical sewing machine. Its tumultuous development resulted in successes and failures, concerns over job losses, personality conflicts, and intense ongoing litigation, as well as innovations in patent-sharing and marketing. Its history had far-reaching effects, even affecting the way many things are made and marketed today. THE PRIMARY INVENTORS The earliest sewing machines tried to replicate the motions made by a handsewer using a single thread. In 1830, Barthélemy Thimonnier (1793–1857), a French tailor, patented the first commercially used sewing machine. It had a hooked needle and created a chain stitch from a single thread. By today’s standards, it was a very slow machine but was eventually improved to sew up to 200 stitches a minute. However, that…