Mary Quayle recently shared a milestone with the crafting group that meets informally every Tuesday evening in the Martinborough Hotel. This special moment in her life was the placing of the last stich on a tapestry that she had begun forty years ago. I asked her why it had taken so long to finish. She told me “I worked on it in fits and starts. Sometimes there were years when I didn’t take up the needle to it. Life just got busy with children and work.”
Mary has done crafting throughout her life. She showed me a box that’s crammed full with her mother’s colourful embroidery cottons. As a very young child she loved to get these out and run her fingers through them as she organised them on the floor. Crafting ran in her family. “Mum would sew all our clothes, my aunt was a great knitter and my uncle created large tapestries. I attended a catholic school and embroidery was part of my lessons.” She remembers her grandparents always recycling and repurposing things that were lying around unused. Mary sees this as adding importance to objects. As an example, she shows me a purse made from an old kimono to which she has added more recycled material, reusing old embroidery thread. It has a beautiful timeless look to it.
There’s a revival in craft-making that is shown by the slowly increasing numbers attending the Martinborough Hotel Tuesday night group. The members inspire each other and share ideas and skills. Some skills get passed down through the generations but Mary says it’s You Tube she learns most from.
It seems that free, open-source digital platforms are now where most crafting knowledge is passed on. However, face to face sharing is still popular. Another crafting group where skills are passed on is the Featherston WoRN Cloth Collective, meeting every Friday in the Anzac Hall. Here there are experts who can help you re-purpose material for yourself or charity. There are sewing machines and all the used material you could want. Several younger women are attending to be taught how to make clothes for their families using recycled material.
I asked Mary what crafting meant to her. She replied “It’s a social hobby, but it’s more than that. It can be very creative and it can re-use old material that would otherwise go to waste.” I can tell that it gives her great satisfaction when she shows me a photo of a ‘basket’ that she made for her sister. It’s made completely from recycled, vibrantly coloured material. Each side is different and makes a clear, thoughtful statement. I can tell that a lot of time has gone into its creation. This is in sharp contrast to the way most fabric articles are made today, where the important factors are speed, scale and disposability. It’s heartening to see that there is so much going on in our community to counter this.
