In the workshop series, we will be focusing on understanding the ways in which women’s traditions of stitching have helped them to “hold their worlds together” in the face of displacement, poverty, enslavement, war, isolation, and other challenges. We will celebrate the resiliency of their traditions as we learn about them and get to make them ourselves.
In our first workshop, we made traditional French Biscornu (meaning “bizarre”) pincushions, a tradition that emerged after the Nazi occupation in the Second World War as a way to use small scraps to replace traditional stitchery tools that had been lost in the war.
In this second workshop, which will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 22 in Building 2N, Room 106, from noon to 2:00pm, we will be making hand-pieced friendship star blocks. In the 19th Century, women in the young United States began to make patchwork as a way to use and re-use expensive industrially milled fabrics, often in imitation of English chintz patterns that were outlawed for purchase in the U.S. One of the patterns that emerged in this time was the “friendship star,” a patchwork pattern that connected small patches into a star shape. These came to be known as friendship stars because it became a common practice among young women to make and give star blocks to their friends as tokens; these would be sewn together by the recipients with blocks from other friends to make an “album” quilt that would help them to remember friends who they might not see after they married, and as more people began to move around the U.S. to follow work or head westward. These friendship star album quilts attest to the close relationships among women built as they stitched together that survived the rapid changes as the U.S. became more urban, industrial, and mobile.
This is an easy project for every level of sewer, especially beginners. They make excellent gifts for friends.
The workshop starts at noon and the learning part is completed by 12:30pm—after that is just hanging out and stitching together. Come for a little or all.
Supplies will be provided. Coffee, tea, and snacks, and good company. All are welcome—students, staff, and faculty. This event is underwritten by funds from the late Jean Roland, long a supported of the Bertha Harris Women’s Center.
Watch for the rest of our workshops this fall, noon-2:00pm in Building 2N, Room 106:
Wednesday, Nov. 6: Visible Mending, Boro-style
Tuesday, Nov. 19: Kantha-Style Needlebook
Wednesday, Dec. 4: Palestinian Tatreez Embroidery
Also, join us for ongoing drop-in mending workshops throughout the fall, 1:00pm-3:00pm in 2N,106; come learn how to repair your clothing instead of trashing it, how to live fashionably AND more sustainably, and to amaze your friends with your button-sewing skills: Tuesday, Oct. 29; Monday, Nov. 4; and Tuesday, Nov. 12. Mending supplies will be on hand; just bring your items you want to learn to repair.
By the Bertha Harris Women’s Center
