Following the Threads


The language of needlecraft

The English language brims over with the imagery of sewing and textiles. You can embroider the truth, weave a web of lies, spin a yarn, needle someone, or stitch them up while knitting your brows and pinning blame elsewhere. All part, of course, of the rich tapestry of life. The phrases are not always complimentary and there is probably some ingrained misogyny there, given that it’s mostly women who have been the ones making tapestries, embroideries, quilts, ceremonial dress, hassocks and wall hangings. Women, often anonymous and invisible, creating beautiful work – examples of which you can easily find in a museum or church near you. We’ll look at some of the great works a little later (you probably won’t have missed the recent arrival of the Bayeux Tapestry), but we should never ignore the art under our noses.

Weaving stories

Stories and myths centred on textiles are found in most cultures. In Greek mythology a ball of thread and a clever woman saved Theseus from being devoured. Ariadne handed him the yarn so he could tie it to the door handle and find his way out of the Labyrinth after killing the Minotaur. Theseus, of course, repaid her in classic fashion by abandoning her on the island of Naxos, sailing off with his mates while she slept. In ‘The Odyssey’ Penelope weaves and then unravels a shroud every night. The Brothers Grimm tell a tale of a little man who can spin straw into gold and brings about his own doom by singing ‘Rumpelstiltskin is my name’ when he thinks that no one is listening. West African folklore has stories about Anansi the trickster Spider, and in Navajo mythology the Spider Woman builds a loom from sun, sky, lightning, and earth. Tales of weaving, looms, spindles, cloth, needles and sewing tumble out of cultures and communities.

Sending secret messages

Embedding secrets and data into cloth has a long history. Mary, Queen of Scots used coded embroidery to depict her rivals – often portraying them as animals. In ‘A Catte’ Elizabeth 1 is represented by a ginger cat playing with a mouse. During the Second World War, the agent known as ‘Paulette’ (Phyllis Doyle) encoded messages through strategically placed knots of silk thread into her knitting. Other women used morse code by passing information through alternating purl and plain stitches. In traditional Yoruba culture, ‘Adire’ is an indigo dyed cloth in which secret messages and patterns are encoded through skills that pass from mother to daughter. And who can forget the terrifying tricoteuse, Madame Defarge in Dickens’ ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ as she sits beneath the guillotine, incorporating the names of those sentenced to death into her creations.

Displays and exhibitions

The Bayeux Tapestry (which is actually an embroidery), is believed to have been stitched by anonymous English women in the late 11th Century. It has recently travelled on loan to the British Museum, where it will be on public display from September. This original will be a huge attraction - but did you know that if you pop in to Reading Museum you can see an extraordinary Victorian replica? It was stitched in 1885 by 35 women from the Leek Embroidery Society and is on permanent display at the museum – admission free!
Further north at Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire there are marvellous examples of the exceptional needlework associated with Bess of Hardwick - one of the most influential and powerful women of the Tudor period. She was financially and politically astute, commissioning huge Elizabethan homes like Chatsworth, and using her design skills to great advantage. In 1577 she sent a dress as a New Year’s gift to Elizabeth 1, who seemed to like it, according to a letter from Elizabeth Wingfield:
‘Her Majesty never liked any thing you gave her so well, the colour and strange trimming of the garments, with the rich and great cost bestowed upon that, has caused her to give out such good speeches of my lord and your Ladyship as I never heard of better…….’
A rather different and radical approach was taken in the 1970s, by Judy Chicago who created a huge work celebrating 39 famous mythical and historical women. The Dinner Party is made up of three tables set in a triangular shape, with 13 place settings at each. Embroidery, needlepoint and ceramics embellish each setting. Responses to the work ranged from the hostile to the appreciative - and still do. Some galleries refused to accept it, but it now has a permanent home in the Brooklyn Institute.
The more you look for works on display, the more you find. Look at The Last Invasion tapestry in Fishguard, for example, created in the 1990s by local women to commemorate the bicentenary of the date that French forces landed on the nearby coast. Or a new tapestry exhibition at Kelmscott Manor in the Cotswolds which has ‘Good Women’, a new exhibition by Christie Freeth, who writes: 
‘It is the inner life of women that shapes my narrative; fleeting fragile memories rarely granted space on the great and the good of yore.’

Look locally

It is very likely that there are fine specimens of needlecraft close by – there will be quilts hanging in local public buildings: see the information about the One World Quilt and its origins here in Milton Keynes, for example. You can often see exquisitely embroidered banners used by suffrage movements and trade unions in their campaigns. And of course, in so many churches you will find a lovely example of the humble ‘hassock,’ which these days is more often called a ‘kneeler’. As textile expert Jean Terepka says: 
‘Any church, large or small, graced with an array of beautiful, colourful and meaningful kneelers is a church whose parishioners and visitors alike will feel admiration, awe and delight.’ 
To get an idea, just look at the photograph of the hassocks at Holy Trinity Headington Quarry in Oxfordshire. Then head out and find your own examples. Or, even better, feel inspired and start creating!

JULY UPDATE ON THE MK FAWCETT CAMPAIGN FOR A SAFER, HEALTHIER, FAIRER MILTON KEYNES

  • In early September we will hold a planning brunch to assess our options for campaigning and making a difference in Milton Keynes. We will welcome Calliope, Local Group Lead, from The Fawcett Society. If you are interested in finding out more, email us at miltonkeynesfawcettgroup@gmail.com
  • We have been pleased to complete surveys recently for the Centre for Protecting Women Online (CPWO) and the Sexual Assault and Abuse Service (SAASS) in MK, as they prepare their future strategies.
  • As a follow-up to the successful workshop on the national VAWG strategy we are planning an Autumn action-focussed event. Look out for further details.
  • Three members from Fawcett MK attended the annual Fawcett Society Conference, Misogyny Matters, in June. Others from the group watched online. Although we heard many shocking and challenging presentations, we were heartened and revitalised by the examples of courageous and inventive women and men who are battling misogyny in all areas of life, determined that women’s ideas, voices and contributions are robust shapers of agendas and achievements.
  • Research and Analysis: Both the initial 2026 Council Election analysis paper and the 2026 Evidence Paper ‘Women’s Lives in Milton Keynes’ can be found HERE. They have proved useful points of discussion at recent meetings with local MPs.
  • We are pleased to have received comments on the Election 2026 paper from Party Group Leaders and Council officers. The headlines are: Although there are some notable gains in the outcome, including a 50-50 balance of councillors on the governing Liberal Democrat party, an all-female leadership of the three main parties, and a female Leader of the Council, our monitoring shows that the overall percentage of women elected has fallen from 44% to 42%.
  • As the new enlarged Integrated Care Board (ICB) takes shape, we will continue to monitor how women’s health needs are considered. We are watching how ideas such as Women’s Health Clinics are piloted and evaluated and we are closely following the development of the city’s Women and Children’s hospital.
  • MKF has a presence on LinkedIn as well as being on BlueSky. Please follow us on these platforms as well as at https://www.fawcettmk.org.uk/

There is an Image of Milton Keynes One World Quilt in The City Discovery Centre Archive Copy of image taken from the Biography produced for The Women Who Made Milton Keynes exhibition, 2017. 


Location: Milton Keynes, UK

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