PIECEWORK September-October 2013

Celebrate & Create

This issue of PieceWork features a variety of needlework patterns and stories focused on bags. From time-honored treasure bags to Turkish purses, there is a rich and wide history that surrounds these accessories.

The feature articles of this issue explore a variety of cultures and times, taking you on a historical journey through needlework:

• Veronica Patterson shares some of her treasured bags from around the world, such as a Hmong bag, a Japanese Indigo-Dyed bag, a Chirimen bag, and more.

• Learn about the origins of the alms purse in eighteenth-century France.

• Discover the beauty of Nordic waist purses incorporating intricate embroidery and learn about their practicality for women.

• Sleuth your way through the mystery of the Iklé fragment, a piece of cloth that was thought to be the first piece of knitting but is now known as nålbinding.

• Learn about the charity fairs that were held during the American Civil War to help support the troops and included plenty of fancywork from the local women.

• Donna Druchunas dives into the world of Turkish purses while discussing a little golden coin purse she found at a local antique store.

• Discover the Gawthorpe Textiles Collection, amassed by Miss Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth who turned her ancestral home into a craft house to keep textile skills and techniques alive and the redisplay of the original collection in 2012.

• Experience the traditions and the art of the aboriginal peoples in Canada who call themselves People of the First Nations and learn about the traditional button bag.

Recreate history and keep the traditions alive with 9 needlework projects based on the feature articles!

Included in this issue are projects for:

• An Alms purse to embroider

• A Scandinavian tinder pouch to knit

• A bead-crochet purse adapted from Addie E. Heron’s Fancy Work for Pleasure and Profit

• A bag with Iklé birds to knit

• A pouch based on the Iklé Fragment to nålbind

• A charity purse to crochet

• A Turkish Purse to knit

• And a Pacific-Northwest Coast First Nations-Style Button Bag to make.