The Musings of Penelope on the 50^th Birthday of the Guild

Part I - " A butterfly is a moth in an exotic embroidered coat "

" A butterfly is a moth in an exotic embroidered coat” conjures up a vision of great beauty because almost everyone adores butterflies and embroidery is the most beautiful form of embellishment.
Embroider – to decorate (cloth etc.) with needlework. Embroidery – the art of embroidering. Embroidery is also exotic – attractive, strange, unusual and as if of foreign origins.
We often talk about embroidery as “the art of needle and thread” when in fact the use of needle and thread produces LACE, not embroidery. Embroidery necessitates a third ingredient – CLOTH.
To take a little side track here, lace by definition is not lace when worked on cloth. Needle lace is made with buttonhole stitch using a needle and thread, an extension of embroidery. Bobbin lace is made with bobbins and thread, an extension of weaving, braiding and passementerie. The word “lace” originates from the Latin word meaning ‘noose’, described as “a loose loop with a running knot” – this loosely describes buttonhole stitch.
“Lace” also means to “add an ingredient to enhance…flavour, strength, effect, e.g. laced with rum.” To embroider also means, in Penelope’s musings, to “lace” cloth by adding the ingredients of stitches with thread to add flavour, strength and effect.
Butterflies start out as a ground-hugging grub with lots of feet, then they metamorphose into a silent and dormant state within a chrysalis (from the Greek khrusos meaning ‘gold’) emerging into a two-winged flying apparition with a short life span whose purpose is to fly around the garden looking beautiful and pollinating plants, then laying eggs for the next cycle. They must be female!
As a metaphor for embroidery, the ‘multi-peded’ grub (even an embroidery stitch has been named after it - grub stitch) may be seen as fabric, threads and needles, the chrysalis as the containment within the “silent and dormant” state of doing the embroidery and the butterfly is the result of the added invisible ingredient, the soul of the embroiderer, lacing the cloth with her own unique interpretation of the “art” of the stitch and the elements of colour and design.
Embroidery transforms cloth. Taking up embroidery has also been known to transform people, adding richness and meaning to their lives. The grub stage is the worker eating as much as she can to expand her knowledge in order to weave the chrysalis. The chrysalis stage provides time out from day to day concerns because one soon becomes totally engrossed in the repetitive movements, the concentration and the rhythm of the stitch. The butterfly is the reward – the rich exotic coat.

A very useful exit line in any situation could be “excuse me, I’m just going to be in my chrysalis for a while "

Stitch with Passion

Penelope