Threading Time: A Cultural History Of Threadwork

Threading Time A Cultural History of Threadwork Dolores Bausum THREADING TIME: A Cultural History of Threadwork A Cultural THREADING TIME History of Threadwork Dolores Bausum TCU Press Fort Worth, Texas Copyright © 2001 by Dolores Bausum Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bausum, Dolores. Threading time : a cultural history of threadwork / Dolores Bausum p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-87565-241-7 (alk. Paper) 1. Needlework. 2. Needlework—History. 3. Fancy work. 4. Fancy work— History. I. Title. TT750.B28 2001 746.4’09—dc21 00-051225 Design by Barbara M. Whitehead Title page photo by Barbara M. Whitehead Contents Preface / vii Acknowledgments / xi 1. A Time to Sew / 1 2. Athena’s Gift / 23 3. Threads ‘Twixt Cloister and Crown / 43 4. Art of the Loom / 65 5. Ballads of Harp Weavers / 87 6. With Passion and Thread / 109 7. Battle Yarns / 131 8. Sewing for Bread in Years Gone By / 153 9. Fortunate Daughters and Sons / 173 Bibliography / 191 Index / 203 Preface Y ears ago my mother gave my brother the officer’s sword worn by her paternal great-grandfather in the Union army; she gave me the silver thimble used by her maternal great-grandmother, widow of a Confederate soldier. During the winter of 1862, my Confederate ancestor wrote home from his position on the banks of the Mississippi River where “the wind has a fare sweep of us.” He requested that his wife, his “dear and affectionate companion,” send him “one bed quilt and also my knit shirt.” Measles claimed his life soon after, yet his widow persevered, stitching clothing for their infant son and herself using the thimble now in my keeping. In the 1930s, she still occasionally wove cloth by hand on a pedal loom. Her silver thimble is a reminder to me today that shortages of warm clothing, shoes, socks, and blankets have caused perhaps as much human suffering as injuries inflicted in battles. As a child, I had other reminders that human hands, skill, and time were behind all that I and my friends wore. Our mothers made our gowns, our dresses, and even underpants, which sometimes matched our dresses. I recall the excitement of watching newly acquired fabric evolve before my eyes into shapes of sleeves, collar, and cuffs which almost magically turned into something that would be pulled over my head for hem measurement and later worn proudly to school or church. That was being present at the creation! I was seven years old before I was taken to a store for a ready-made dress, and by then I knew how to look at seams to see how they were finished. Today, however, just two generations later, children and adults commonly blank out curiosity about the origins of finished threadwork products, whether they are mass-produced jeans or hand-woven medieval tapestries.
vii Threading Time Perhaps because of my family heritage, I began, after two decades of teaching, to design and sell quilts stitched by master needlecrafters in Virginia. Eventually two of these Virginia-made quilts were presented to first ladies in the White House and others were displayed for several years in American ambassadorial residences in Portugal and Luxembourg. Over time the quilters