Last week at the Hunt Club

At the Hunt Club we are working steadily towards an exhibition about Glory Boxes, as apart of the Christian Coptic tradition.  The exhibition will be taking place in February - but as you know when you are hand sewing it always takes a long time to finish a piece.

Below are photos of works in progress for some final patches for our group linen table cloth.  This coming Thursday I hope we will be starting to stitch it all together.

 This design is of a mother and daughter, walking with a puppy and also a weeping willow - I wonder what the story is behind this imagery.  Angi Russi is another artist working on the project.  She is collecting the women's Glory Box stories and compiling transcripts.

 

Other items the women are interested in working on include towels, aprons and also tea towels.  Making my way through the Internet I have found some fantastic tea towel embroidery designs - it looks like we will draw our inspiration from these ones below. These patterns can be found here.

 

I like the idea of using the days of the week and glorifying the montany of running a household, which is what really we are making glory box items for - to make a home with the presence of the woman of the house's handicrafts.

How do I feel about this? I like tradition and sewing - so kind of excited, but also free because it is my choice to make, one time girls were not given many options.  I also feel some urgency to return to this way of making a home for sustainable reasons - making do and enjoying what you have.

 

Cross Stitch sourced from here

I have also been thinking about the journey through life to becoming a woman - stitching or preparing to run a household doesn't really play a role in this any more - rather education and getting a good job. 

Listening to The Book Show this morning (one of my favourite things to do whilst working in the studio) there was a review of  Bossypants by Tina Fey - a chapter is on becoming a woman - a story was retold of a workshop she once attended and all the participant were asked to write about the moment that they identified as a woman - and most described this moment as being abused by a man - which is a stomach curdling thought for a mother with a young daughter.