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' britches.
~~ Edward Field, 1850-1895 ~~
32. A Stitcher's Prayer
Lord, Grant that I may see to stitch
Until my dying day,
And when my last short thread is clipped
And scissors tucked away,
The work that I have done live on,
That other folk may see
The pleasure I have known, Lord,
In the skill you gave to me.
-- Mary-Dick Digges –
33. The TAO of Women
She allows the daughter,
sitting beside her,
to take the first stitch.
The wise woman does not rush in
to take it apart.
She smiles, acknowledges,
and continues to sew her own stitches.
The daughters model the mothers.
Act wisely.
The daughters are watching.
-- The TAO of Women -- by PK Metz and Jacqueline L. Tobin, 1995
34. Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads which sew people together through the years.
-- Simone Signoret –
35. The Needleworker's Prayer
Creator God,
who hast knitted together our souls
and bodies and woven us close into the tapestry
of Thy creation,
so embroider us with the threads of Thy grace
that our lives may be for Thee
and for one another a fitting ornament to adorn
Thy glory.
-- Unknown --
36. Virtuous Woman:
Who can find a virtuous woman?
For her price is far above rubies.
She seeketh wool, and flax,
and worketh willingly with her hands.
She layeth her hands to the spindle,
and her hands hold the distaff.
She maketh herself coverings of tapestry;
her clothing is silk and purple.
She maketh fine linen, and selleth it;
and delivereth girdles unto the merchant.
Strength and honour are her clothing;
and she shall rejoice in time to come.
Give her of the fruit of her hands;
and let her own works praise her in the gates.
-- Excerpts from Proverbs, Chapter 31. –-
37. Children seldom achieve greatness,
in the way of sewing,
unless it is thrust upon them;
few take to it naturally,
and a child's definition of a needle would probably be,
'Something to prick one's fingers with.'
-- Ella Rodman Church, 1882
38. How much to be prized and esteemed is a Friend On whom we may always safely depend. Our joys, when extended, will always increase And griefs, when divided, are hushed into peace.
-- (from a 1799 sampler) –
39. "I took my sampler ones,
of purpose, for the nones,
to sowe with stytchis of sylke
My sparow whyte as mylke"
- John Shelton, "Phyllyp Sparowe" -
40. "Now, when examplers, and to persue which work would doe beste in a ruffe,
whiche in a quaife, whiche in a caule,
whiche in a handcarcheef; what lace would doe beste to edge it,
what seeme, what stitcher, what cutte, what garde;
and to sitte her doune and take it forthe by little and little,
and thus with her nedle to passe the after noone with devising of things for her owne wearynge”
~ Barnabe Riche's "Of Phylotus and Emilia," 1581 ~
