Clare Hunter > Quotes

“Sewing is a way to mark our existence on cloth: patterning our place in the world, voicing our identity, sharing something of ourselves with others and leaving the indelible evidence of our presence in stitches held fast by our touch.”
― Clare Hunter, Threads of Life: A History of the World Through the Eye of a Needle

“Back then, needlework had power and its embroiderers had value. Back then, sewing mattered.”
― Clare Hunter, Threads of Life: A History of the World Through the Eye of a Needle

“For no matter where we were born or where we grew up, for most of us there are other places, ancestral lands, that somehow still resonate deep in our unconscious.”
― Clare Hunter, Threads of Life: A History of the World Through the Eye of a Needle

“Sewing is a visual language. It has a voice. It has been used by people to communicate something of themselves — their history, beliefs, prayers and protests. For some, it is the only means to tell of what matters to them: those who are imprisoned or censored; those who do not know how or are not allowed to write of their lives. For them needlework can carry their autobiographies and testimonies, registering their origin and fate. Using patterns as syntax, symbols and motifs as its vocabulary, the arrangement of both as its grammar, sewing is a graphic way to add information and meaning. But is not a monologue, it is part of a conversation, a dialogue, a correspondence only fully realised once it is seen and its messages are read. It connects the maker to the viewer across time, cultures, generations and geographies. As a shared language, needlework transmits — through techniques, coded symbols, fabrics and colour — the unedited stories, not just of women, but often of those marginalised by oppression and prejudice.”
― Clare Hunter, Threads of Life: A History of the World Through the Eye of a Needle

“For centuries, this was the fate of women embroiderers. They were robbed of their power. This is the history of needlework.”
― Clare Hunter, Threads of Life: A History of the World Through the Eye of a Needle

“There is camaraderie in sewing. With heads bent over stitching, confidences are more readily shared and topics can become more intimate. The pooling of equipment – scissors, threads, needles – necessitates small physical interactions that break down social barriers. Technical problems are communally solved, collective skill and achievement applauded.”
― Clare Hunter, Embroidering Her Truth: Mary, Queen of Scots and the Language of Power

“Sewing is a conscious activity, not just an object. It is what we put into cloth, the time, care, thought, the evidence of self that we invest in it that makes it potent. This is not mere surface decoration; needlework is layered in emotional meaning.”
― Clare Hunter, Embroidering Her Truth: Mary, Queen of Scots and the Language of Power

“In the sixteenth century, the needle held a number of symbolic meanings. It was thought to be synonymous with breath, the rhythm it produced being analogous to that of breathing. It also signified an arrow piercing a target or a gateway through which one could pass between the underworld, the temporal universe and the celestial heavens.”
― Clare Hunter, Embroidering Her Truth: Mary, Queen of Scots and the Language of Power

“For Mary, living in an environment of surveillance and suspicion, with visitors monitored and conversations reported on, and where her correspondence was intercepted and read, verbal and written forms of communication had to be guarded, even when encoded. Such writings, therefore, cannot be assumed to be a true reflection of her thoughts and opinions. Mary’s needlework, however, was uncensored. She”
― Clare Hunter, Embroidering Her Truth: Mary, Queen of Scots and the Language of Power