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Celebrate!

Piecework Editorial Staff Jan 16, 2015 - 4 min read

Celebrate! Primary Image

Delicate shell-motif lace from the New-York Tribune weekly edition, November 11, 1879, chosen by Mary Lycan for the lace that Laura knitted for Mary's petticoat in The Long Winter. Photo by Joe Coca.

We’re having a party and you’re invited! The September/October 2013 issue of PieceWork marks our twentieth anniversary!

Bart Elwell’s spectacular crocheted Charity Purse. Photo by Joe Coca.
We devoted this milestone issue to Treasured Bags. In her eloquent article, “Treasured Bags: Places to Keep Things,” Veronica Patterson, PieceWork’s first editor, discusses five bags from her collection and their connections to PieceWork. Veronica says: “‘And what is a stitch for?’ I remember writing for the cover of the September/October 1993 issue, ‘To hold. It binds past to present, old country to new, generation to generation.’”

Also in this issue are a variety of other bags meant to hold treasures, including eight projects with step-by-instructions so you can knit, crochet, embroider, or nålbind them yourself. Among them are two based on an Islamic Egyptian fragment, a Swedish tinder pouch, an 1862 charity purse, and an eighteenth-century alms purse. (The alms purse was designed and embroidered by a very talented student at the Royal School of Needlework at Hampton Court Palace in England; many thanks to the Royal School for connecting us to her.)

The stunning embroidered Alms Purse by Becky Quine.

Photo by Joe Coca.
“Charitably Chic: The Eighteenth-Century Alms Purse” takes you back to the pomp and splendor of the French court when small but exquisitely made purses were used to solicit alms during Sunday mass in the Royal Chapel at Versailles. “Istanbul on My Mind” centers on a small, precisely crocheted Turkish purse that the author found in an antiques store. And you can puzzle with the experts about “The Iklé Fragment: Knitting or Not?”

Nancy Bush’s Tinder Pouch inspired by traditional Swedish pouches used to carry items for building fires while traveling.

Photo by Joe Coca.
Interweave’s founder, Linda Ligon, started PieceWork for those who value the past and present roles of handwork in the ongoing human story. To bring you compelling and informative articles about the history of needlework done by hand together with projects utilizing those skills has been and continues to be PieceWork’s mission.

My sincere thanks to each of you—subscribers, contributors, readers, and advertisers (some of whom have been involved with the magazine since its inception)—for your support. Special thanks to our Twentieth Anniversary sponsors: Brown Sheep Company, Colonial Needle, Handy Hands, Lantern Moon, and Universal Yarn.

I’m delighted that you’re celebrating PieceWork’s twentieth with all of us!

Best,

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