I thought for a few days about how to set up the hankies for stitching. First I looked for fabric to stitch the hankies to, that I would mount on stretchers when the embroidery / beading is done. I also thought about putting batting under the hankies to give more dimension.
I finally decided to simply stitch on the hankie with no backing because I want to maintain the dainty quality of the hankies. I also want to keep the option of displaying the pieces with the least framing possible. Perhaps they could be displayed on a table with no framing whatsoever.
Last night I started the embroidery. How comforting it felt to use one grandmother's floss on the other grandma's hankie. These bits of cloth and thread take me back to my Gram E's basement, with it's 8 foot by 12 foot cloth covered table. That's where my Gram taught me to iron and to lay out patterns. On the east wall of the basement were boxes holding treasures - old lace, fabrics, crazy quilt squares. As the only grandchild I have inherited many of those treasures.
As precious as those items are to me, sewing on these fabrics, the physicality of it, has brought me closer to my grandmothers than I have felt in the many years since their deaths. I am so grateful that I decided to use the hankies.
My dad's sisters gave me my Gram R's embroidery floss after she died. I had learned to embroider in Girl Scouts, and gave my gram one of my projects. I was one of 14 granddaughters, but must have been the only one who had shown an interest in needlework. I've been thinking of Gram R. She emigrated from Italy in her 20's, with a 5 year old son. She never learned to read or write, spoke with a thick accent, and was often hard to understand. For every birthday, she gave me a hankie that she'd crocheted around, using the embroidery floss. Now I wonder where she learned to crochet?
I'm sure many more questions will come to me as I continue to stitch and commune with these two women who so powerfully shaped my life. Thanks to all for your good wishes and sharing. Needlework in particular is a calming and healing endeavor, and although I've made art for several years, I've not experienced this level of peace.
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2 comments:
Preserving the dainty quality of the hankies and finishing them so that you can always touch them are important decisions... and good ones in my opinion. I love the picture of the hankies in your previous post... How beautiful they are and such a powerful connection to both your personal Grams and the ubiquitous, archetypal gram!
You might want to create a little side bar item that links to your very first post... the origins of this project. As the posts build and the web attracts new readers, they'd have a quick way to see what you're doing.
When is the surgery???
Thanks for your comment, Robin. Even if we haven't known our grandmothers, or they weren't the nurturing sort, we are all descendents of a powerful lineage of women who devoted some amount of their energy to our being here now on this planet. That's a LOT of support!
I'll look into the sidebar. I'm not too savvy with that sort of thing.
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