Famous Quotations in Needlework  (and some not-so-famous)

Some of us have searched the web over looking for quotes dealing with sewing and embroidery and I, for one, have found very little.  So, I've gathered what I did find, and I would be very grateful to anyone who could add to the list!!  Please email Judy.  Let me know if you'd like credit for sending it.  (Some would just as soon stay anonymous, and I understand.)       judy@white-works.com

Grandma's Prayer

I pray that, risen from the dead,
I may in glory stand --
A crown, perhaps, upon my head,
But a needle in my hand.

I've never learned to sing or play,
So let no harp be mine;
From birth unto my dying day,
Plain sewing's been my line.

Therefore, accustomed to the end
To plying useful stitches,
I'll be content if asked to mend
The little angels' breeches.

Eugene Field

I recently found this one: "When I'm not writing or tweaking my computer, I do embroidery. When I'm not plunging into the past, tweaking, or embroidering, I'm reading books about history, computers, or embroidery."
~Lynn Abbey
 

"The only place where housework comes before needlework is in the dictionary".

--Mary  Kurtz,  "The Needlework Times" April, 1978.

Fashion can be bought, style one must possess.
Edna Woolman Chase

 "Success is often a series of failures that you didn't allow to stop you!"

Dear Judy,

While creating a collage of old fabric swatches from my children's Halloween costumes, maternity clothes I made for myself, the yards and yards of curtains I've made over the years (my husband is in the Army and we've moved 11 times in 18 years - that's a lot of curtains!), my firstborn's bedroom/layette set, etc., I realized I needed a quote to put in the middle of the frame.  I came up with the following:

"Memories are sewn together with heartstrings".

Sincerely,
Gina Redwine

Thank you, Sandra!!   June 2, 2002

Fashion is made to become unfashionable.
Coco Chanel, 1883 - 1971

Fashion is something barbarous, for it produces innovation without reason and imitation without benefit.
George Santayana, 1863 - 1921

Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.
Henry David Thoreau

******

No amount of preaching, exhortation, sympathy, benevolence, will render the condition of our working women what it should be, so long as the kitchen and needle are substantially their only resources.--Horace Greeley, 1811 - 1872

Hi,  I wrote this on the rod of a wooden paper towel holder that I painted and
use on the floor to keep my crochet thread from bouncing all over the floor
and providing hours of entertainment for my cats. It holds 2-3 balls and
keeps them feeding evenly if you are working with more than one strand of
yarn. Thank you for your website.  I was looking for something to write on my
embroidery hoop stand, and came across it.

Needlework is a way to capture Love, Beauty, Peace & Time...
Christina

***********    Thank you, Christina!!!   August 29, 2001   *********

Embroidery  quilting  needlework/sewing  needlepoint  knitting  miscellaneous  design   lace

From Melissa:

OK, here goes.  This one is from Ella Rodman Church, author of The Home Needle,
1882:

"Children seldom achieve greatness, in the way of sewing, unless it is thrust
upon them...."

(she was having fun with Shakespeare there! it continues)

"...them; few take to it naturally, and a child's definition of a needle would
probably be, 'Something to prick one's fingers with.'"  :) 

On embroidery:

Embroidery is the art of enriching a fabric with stitchery.

We are enjoying a revival in all arts and crafts--it is fashionable to be dexterous--and since it is better to be out of the world than out of fashion--it is as well to know something of the art which will soon be the pastime of every woman in the million houses where the wireless is turned on nightly.  --

Many people are deterred from trying some forms of embroidery simply because their names imply that they are complicated and difficult to learn.  --Moyra McNeill,  Pulled Thread Embroidery

There are only a handful of basic stitches which are the Adams and Eves of all the others...stem, satin, chain, cross, back, weaving, and filling--upon which untold variations have been built.
--Erica Wilson 

...The Art of Needlework, by Mrs. Elisabeth Stone.  This was the first history of embroidery, and it aroused great interest from the moment of its publication in 1840.  Thomasina Beck, The Embroiderer's Story

Embroidery has a natural affinity for flowers.  It can also, of course, represent nothing at all.  --Chris Rankin, Splendid Silk Ribbon Embroidery, 1996

Embroidery has continually played an integral part in the history of man and woman.  It not only signified certain status and wealth through the ages but it has also given countless hours of satisfaction to those who could create something of beauty with a needle and thread.  --Margaret Pierce

Embroidery, like every other art--or sport, for that matter--needs to be understood to be enjoyed.  --Mary Thomas

Embroidery is a very personal art, its charm lies in the individuality expressed by the worker. W. G. Paulson Townsend 1899

On design:

We have to trust our own choice after all, and end with the simple belief that what pleases us is beautiful.  Indeed, no other rule is of any use to us, and if we do but honestly please ourselves, and make forms which genuinely give us pleasure, we shall find ourselves credited with the power of designing beautiful things.  --Richard Hatton

It requires as much ingenuity to adapt a design as to invent one, and the needle worker who can adapt a pattern from another source is half way along the road to being a successful designer. --Ernest Thesiger   Adventures in Embroidery 1941

It is a fallacy to think that original design can only be achieved after years of training.  --Constance Howard   Inspiration of Embroidery  1966

On Needlework/sewing:

From the Martha Pullen email newsletter, July 1, 2002:

"The sewing machine joins what the scissors have cut asunder, plus whatever
else comes in its path."
Mason Cooley            (Don't you love it?)

Needlework is an outlet for the creative instinct.

Excerpt from Mrs. Harris's Soliloquy, While Threading Her Needle - By Lady Dufferin:

"Ah deary me! what needles! - well really I must say,

All things are sadly altered - (for the worse too) since my day!

The pins have neither heads nor points - the needles have no eyes,

And there's ne'er a pair of scissors of the good old - fashioned size!"

The very bodkins now are made in fine new-fangled ways,"

And the good old British thimble - is a dream of other days!"

From Monique:  " ...Methinks it is a token of healthy and
gentle characteristics, when women of
high thoughts and accomplishments love
to sew, especially as they are never more
at home with their own hearts than while
so occupied." ----- Hawthorne's "Marble Faun".

We should have nothing in our houses, which we did not either know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.  --William Morris  The Beauty of Life lecture, 1880

"Anything you do with needle and thread improves what else you do with needle and thread." Sarah Douglas, 1998    contributed by Dianne Lewandowski

The British needlewoman follows blindly where the merchant leads.  --Ann Macbeth 1920

Strangely the manufacturers appear quite uninterested in tempting us with tools that are not only a pleasure to use, but to look at as well.  --Thomasina Beck 

They must be careful, diligent and wise, In Needleworkes that beare away the Prise.  --William Barley, 1596

She (Mary, late Countess of Pembroke) wrought so well in Needleworke that she nor yet her Worke shall ere forgotten be.   --John Taylor, 1630

Some may wonder if handsewing, with its seemingly endless stitches, has a real place in today's busy home.  Just as comfortable a place, we reply, as the rocking chair in the nursery.  --Sarah Howard Stone

Make the process of sewing a pleasure for yourself, so that you hum and smile to yourself as you sew.  --Nancy Zieman  The Busy Woman's Sewing Book

A stitch in time saves nine. You keep me in stitches.  Beats a sharp needle in the eye.  All contributed by my better half, Jim.  :)

Arachne first invented working with the needle, which this mayd of Lydia learned from the spiders, taking her first samplers and patterns from them in imitation. --Edward Topsel, History of Fourfooted Beasts and Serpents, 1608

Sometimes it's easier to turn on the TV and become a couch potato than to get started on that next piece of needle art.  --Linda Fry Kinzle  Embellishments 1993

I cannot count my day complete  'til needle, thread and fabric meet.

Really I don't dislike to cook, but what you cook is eaten so quickly.  When you sew, you have something that will last to show for your efforts.  --Elizabeth Travis Johnson   The Complete Book of Sewing for Children.

All my scattering moments are taken up with my needle.   1851 diary of Ellen Birdseye Wheaton

Here followeth certaine patterns of cut-workes, also sundry sorts of spots, as Flowers, Birds, and Fishes, etc. and will fitly serve to be wrought, some with gould, some with silke, and some with crewell, or otherwise at your pleasure. --Richard Schorleyker, A Schole house for the Needle,  1624

Young ladies should be taught that usefulness is happiness, and that all other things are but incidental. --Lydia Maria Child  1832

Needle-work, in all its forms of use, elegance and ornament, has ever been the appropriate occupation of woman.  --Lydia H Sigourney, 1837

Home to my poor wife, who works all day like a horse, at the making of her hangings for our chamber and bed.  --Samuel Pepys

My mother kept a gentlewoman to teach us all kinds of needlework which shows that I was not brought up to an idle life.  --Anne Halket (1623-1699)

With his enthusiasm for words, he quite probably made up the names of some of the twenty-one stitches (Rosemary and Mouse stitch for example) which have puzzled embroidery historians ever since, but his comments on embroidery are none the less highly perceptive.  --Thomasina Beck on John Taylor.

Take your needle, my child, and work at your pattern; it will come out a rose by and by.  Life is like that-one stitch at a time taken patiently and the pattern will come out all right like the embroidery.  --Oliver Wendell Holmes

She watched and taught the girls that sang at their embroidery frames while the great silk flowers grew from their needles.  --Louis Jordan Miln  The Feast of Lanterns

Useful and ornamental needlework, knitting, and netting are capable of being made, not only sources of personal gratification, but of high moral benefit, and the means of developing in surpassing loveliness and grace, some of the highest and noblest feelings of the soul.  The Ladies' Work-table Book,  1843 quoted from Piecework magazine, March 1995

Strive with all your might against foolish
 superstitions in dress, a thing hateful to God. These
 ornaments, as they call them, but which others call
 foulness, with their wide embroidered purple stripes, are
 sent by Antichrist to herald his coming. Through his [134]
 craftiness he introduces into monasteries his own servants,
 fornication and lust, sinful friendships of youths in purple
 garments, distaste for study and prayer, and the ruin of
 souls. Such attire shows the wickedness of their souls,
 giving proof of arrogance and pride, luxury, vanity, of
 which Wisdom says: " Pride and arrogance and the evil way of
 the froward mouth I hate."  

--From "The Correspondence of St. Boniface" in the Medieval
 Sourcebook.

 http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/boniface-letters.html

On Lace:

...for even some of the most prized of old laces can be successfully copied by all who have patience, leisure, and eyesight.  --S. F. A. Caulfeild  A Dictionary of Needlework 1882

On needlepoint:

Needlepoint: ...the delicious art of filling in holes with wool.  --Carole Berman/Jennifer Lazarus The Needlepoint Collection

Needlepoint is a superb way to stop smoking and nibbling, and unlike counted cross stitch also allows the mind to wander.  --Carole Berman/Jennifer Lazarus The Needlepoint Collection

Apart from yoga, meditation, reading, it (needlepoint) has to be one of the most serene things to do (don't lose your needles though, that can create a severe lack of serenity).  --Carole Berman/Jennifer Lazarus The Needlepoint Collection

The best thing about doing needlepoint for very small children is that they are so uncritical.  The don't say things like, 'I see you've missed some stitches over here on the leg, was that intentional?' or 'Was this creature blinded in a fight?'  They will clasp it in their little arms and love it besottedly, inseparably as the thing becomes more and more rancid.  --Carole Berman/Jennifer Lazarus The Needlepoint Collection

So, we should encourage our children to sew, not as the mind-numbing experience it was for many of us, but to lean the satisfaction of creating and experimenting, with definitely no mention of the word 'perfectionist' (because therein lies madness).  --Carole Berman/Jennifer Lazarus The Needlepoint Collection

On knitting:

from Elizabeth Zimmerman:

Properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn't hurt the untroubled spirit, either.  

For people allergic to wool, one's heart can only bleed.

There is no right way to knit; there is no wrong way to knit.  So if anybody kindly tells you that what you are doing is "wrong," don't take umbrage; they mean well.  Smile submissively, and listen, keeping your disagreement on an entirely mental level.  They may be right, in this particular case, and even if not, they may drop off pieces of information which will come in very handy if you file them away carefully in your brain for future reference.

Really, all you need to become a good knitter are wool, needles, hands, and slightly below-average intelligence.  Of course, superior intelligence, such as yours and mine, is an advantage.

A #6 aluminum needle has been known to furnish an excellent emergency shearpin for an outboard motor.

Knitting still remains my most stimulating yet relaxing activity and I thank the powers that be that I can make a living at it...I always pack my knitting or needlepoint project first when traveling.  --Kaffe Fassett

On quilting:

What a counterpain to sleep under or die in.  We all got to represent each other.  Every color is a deed and suffering, a prize.  Our quilt'll be, oh, quite the winding cloth and glad rag.   --Pull it over me!       --Allan Gurganus  Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All

Miscellaneous:

Those who agree with us may not be right but we admire their astuteness.--Cullen Hightower.

Life is an affair of putting on clothing. --Richard Wentz

Little children love rhyme and rhythm long before they are able to grasp the thought expressed.  --McCall's  June 1912

I base most of my fashion taste on what doesn't itch.  --Gilda Radner

Sometimes the simplest ideas are the most charming and appealing.  -- Jenny Haskins, Victorian Pansies.

When your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt.  --Henry J. Kaiser

Can today's efficient manager and homemaker find satisfaction in old fashioned craftsmanship?  You bet your baby booties!  --Jo Paoletti, Heirloom Sewing for Jack and Jill.

In my experience, there's a strong correlation between idiot work and unfinished work, and "idiot" has less to do with the intelligence required to perform the task than the intelligence and forethought, or lack thereof, that might have prompted me to start it int he first place. --Linda Ligon  "Idiot Work" Piecework magazine Jan '95

{Dress} is one of the most powerful mediums of expression ever devised by humans.  It serves as a frontier to the human body and a determinant of the individual's inner consciousness.  --Penny Storm   Functions of Dress

The greater part of a woman's life ought to be and necessarily must be passed at home.  Fanny Parkes, 1825

Nowhere has the seductive appeal of Berlin woolwork for Victorian women been better explained than in Miss Lambert's Handbook of Needlework (1842), the first practical manual ever written for embroiderers.  T. Beck

It is not that artistic power has left the world but that a more rapid life has developed itself in it, leaving no time for deliberate dainty decoration or labours of love.   --Mrs. Orrinsmith 1877

Nothing should be made by man's labour which is not worth making or which must be made by labour degrading to the makers. --William Morris

No one can be really esteemed accomplished, who does not greatly surpass what is usually met with.  --Jane Austen, 1813   Pride and Prejudice

Her (Jane Austen) needlework both plain and ornamental was excellent, and she might have put a sewing machine to shame.  She was considered especially great in satin stitch.  --James Edward Austen-Leigh, 1871

QUOTES, generic, about everything!  pages and pages of them.

IRISH Quotes.  Not necessarily about anything...thank you!  This is an outside link.

Thanks for reading with me!

Email me if you have contributions. judy@white-works.com 

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Whiteworks Christening Gowns

2009

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