"Mary was not going to have [Robert] Twyford, but she was going to have a morning. Music and breakfast. And she was going to have an afternoon. Crewelwork and walks with her friend, and then dinner. And she was going to have an evening. Words floating on the night air read aloud by her father. Though it was an order imposed from without, a domestic order, it was one that she could internalize. Daily-ness, like sewing, puts one stitch after the other. At first you don't see how on earth you will cover a whole piece of linen with manipulated thread. And then you start, making each long stitch count, each short stitch, each French knot as good as you can make it, as perfect, pouring all your energy into the measure of the thread, like a measure of music, and watching the work grow under your very hands, and going to bed, and getting up the next morning. Having one day, and then the next.
Her life at this time was a mere paragraph in a novel. In novels, especially the romance books my mother took out of the library, routines are boring and the novelist must dispatch them in a sentence or two. But in life our routines are the signposts of destiny."
From The Paper Garden: Mrs Delany Begins Her Life's Work at 72
I think this is when needlework steps over from being craft into the realms of fine art. A wonderful example of her work, and a super introduction to this book! Another for my ever-lengthening Wish List!
Posted by: Margaret Powling | 26 August 2011 at 08:14 AM