Thinking about Embroidery
Will the dishwashing ever end..?
Hejsa!
I usually sit down on Thursdays to write these…newsletters…posts..? I’m not sure what to call them. You can subscribe like a regular newsletter but there’s also a whole social eco system to it if you use Substack. Out of curiosity, are you an email subscriber or do you also use Substack?
Anyway, I digress. So yesterday, Thursday, I did not sit down to write to you because I spent most of the day watching a live symposium about Palestinian embroidery. It was fascinating. So interesting and there were also a few teary moments, because, y’know, genocide…
The symposium was held in conjunction with the Material Power Palestinian Embroidery exhibition at the Whithworth in Manchester. And now I really, really want to see that exhibition. But with train ticket prices being what they are, that’s probably not going to happen… Anyone want to sponsor an overnight trip to Manchester for me? No? I didn’t think so. ;-)
But if embroidery, and material culture, and Palestine is something you are interested in, (and you are near Manchester) do go see this exhibition. You’re probably not going to get another chance to see this sort of thing. And so much has been lost in the past few months…
The exhibition is on until April 7th.
The embroidery was of course mainly done by women, both in the past and in the present. And I guess it’s fitting that I am thinking about the embroidery, and the women who made it, today on International Women’s Day. The often less than ideal circumstances under which the embroidery was made. And how little embroidery is still valued, especially monetarily…
I am also thinking about my grandmothers. My farmor (paternal grandmother) especially, because she made things all her life. I don’t think she ever met a craft she couldn’t master. She also taught classes and she and my farfar owned a knitting and haberdashery shop at one point.
A recently finished page for my 100 day project. I’m really enjoying making these! :-)
Right, I should go and do the dishes. I batch cooked a bunch of stuff this morning (too much screen time yesterday, I needed to do something that felt productive today!) so there’s a fairly large pile of dishes to be done.
But first, I’ll link to a couple of recent YouTube videos: How to make a wonky quilt block - Making a fabric collage for my 100 day project.
Have a lovely weekend!
x Carina
P.S. Will you sign this letter encouraging DMC to speak out against the genocide in Gaza? They spoke out against Russia’s war on Ukraine but so far they have been quiet on Gaza. And that just ain’t right. Especially considering how widely DMC threads are used by Palestinian embroiderers…
Random Things That Caught My Eye
An article (mainly about motherhood) with a Palestinian woman who lives in Australia. At the bottom there are a few recipes that I want to try. Za’atar bread, triple garlic hummus. Sounds delicious! :-)
How to spot AI in crochet (similar goes for knitting.)
Video: Indigenous Memory. Fascinating.
Video: Revealed: the realistic cost of a handmade queen-size quilt. And this is why I only make quilts for people who will really appreciate them.
Art: Celestial Expanses and Abstract Landscapes.
Design: 1960s Milwaukee bus passes. The colours, the typography, oh my!
Music: Paul McCartney was reunited with a guitar that was stolen 50 years ago. I don’t know why but this just made me smile. :-)
Not a subscriber