Needlework Quotes

“Women derive a pleasure, incomprehensible to the other sex, from the delicate toil of the needle.”
― Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter

“But dear, you hate to sew.

I will be married soon. Lady Thiel says a woman with needlework in her hands is generally assumed to have no other thoughts in her head and can safely harbor any number of improprieties. That will come in handy, especially when I'm married to a wizard.”
― Patricia A. McKillip, Od Magic

“Then took the quilt out of its linen wrapper for the pleasure of the brilliant colors and the feel of the velvet. The needlework was very fine and regular. Adair hated needlework and she could not imagine sitting and stitching the fine crow’s-foot seams.
Writing was the same, the pinching of thoughts into marks on paper and trying to keep your cursive legible, trying to think of the next thing to say and then behind you on several sheets of paper you find you have left permanent tracks, a trail, upon which anybody could follow you. Stalking you through your deep woods of private thought.
”
― Paulette Jiles, Enemy Women

“The verb 'to darn' is explained in my pocket dictionary as follows: 'To mend by imitating the texture of the stuff, with thread and needle.' But this definition does not correspond to the work accomplished by good Chinese housewives. When they mend a sock, they do not try 'to imitate the texture of the stuff'. Their art makes no attempt at concealment: it even takes a certain pride in revealing itself.”
― Daniele Varè, The Maker of Heavenly Trousers

“Pity moment, blah! Let’s turn it around! We do not even need to go into the story of it. We acknowledge this moment and release it. We love and accept and forgive ourselves. And we acknowledge that this is a tiny stitch, a brief pinprick in the needlepoints we are creating of our lives. And we also acknowledge that this lifetime of ours is but a tiny little stitch in the ever-expanding, infinite needlepoint of the Universe. Self-pity is not a reason good enough for us to be out of alignment with peace.”
― Alaric Hutchinson, Living Peace: Essential Teachings For Enriching Life

“Needlework is a retreat from the white noise of everyday life. It is also, crucially, a choice rather than the social requirement it was for women in the 18th and 19th centuries...It is not something we do because we don't have better things to do with our time, but because we find it a creative, mindful and stimulating activity that lets our minds wander as our fingers track over what we're working on.”
― Jennie Batchelor, Jane Austen Embroidery: Regency Patterns Reimagined for Modern Stitchers

“Her life was expected to be as anonymous as the era's needlework.”
― Nancy Rubin Stuart, The Muse of the Revolution: The Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren and the Founding of a Nation

“She will not bow her head to any woman or man, so why, indeed, should she bow to a needle?”
― Libbie Hawker, Daughter of Sand and Stone