The September/October issue of PieceWork Magazine is literary-inspired! We start off with Kathy Augustine’s “Stitching with Paint: Inside the World of Jan Brett.” Jan Brett writes and illustrates delightful books for children of all ages; each is permeated with folklore and folk costume and each is mesmerizing. Mimi Seyferth uncovered fascinating information about beloved American author Nathaniel Hawthorne: “When most people think of Nathaniel Hawthorne and needlework, their minds turn to his novel The Scarlet Letter (1850) and the intricately embroidered scarlet letter A worn by the skilled seamstress Hester Prynne as a symbol of her adultery. But it is a little known fact that, while convalescing from a foot injury suffered when he was nine years old, Hawthorne knitted a pair of stockings for the cat who then reigned in his family’s household.” How delicious is that?? And there’s more-references to knitting are a constant thread in many of Hawthorne’s works. You’ll also find Arthur Conan Doyle’s socks, Margaret Oliphant’s Hester: A Story of Contemporary Life written in 1883, the role of bobbin lace in Italian Carlo Goldoni’s eighteenth-century plays, and “The Hatfield-McCoy Feud Reimagined.” However, we haven’t just looked to the past for our “Needlework in Literature” examples. Two of our contributors drew their inspiration from current popular fiction: Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander and George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series.

Magazine published in September 2015 by Long Thread Media LLC

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