Quotations about Needlework

Methinks it is a token of healthy and gentle characteristics, when women of high thoughts and accomplishments love to sew; especially as they are never more at home with their own hearts than while so occupied. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Marble Faun, 1859


The only place where housework comes before needlework is in the dictionary. ~Mary Kurtz


The sewing machine joins what the scissors have cut asunder, plus whatever else comes in its path. ~Mason Cooley


Sewing mends the soul. ~Author Unknown


Really I don't dislike to cook, but what you cook is eaten so quickly. When you sew, you have something that will last to show for your efforts. ~Elizabeth Travis Johnson


She watched and taught the girls that sang at their embroidery frames while the great silk flowers grew from their needles. ~Louise Jordan Miln, The Feast of Lanterns


Needlepoint: the delicious art of filling in holes with wool. ~Carole Berman and Jennifer Lazarus


Knitting is very conducive to thought. It is nice to knit a while, put down the needles, write a while, then take up the sock again. ~Dorothy Day


I like making a piece of string into something I can wear. ~Author Unknown


I keep my end tables full of needlework and quilting so I don't have to dust them. ~Author Unknown


Buttons and patches and the cold wind blowing,
The days pass quickly when I am sewing.
~Author Unknown


May your bobbin always be full! ~Author Unknown


From the manner in which a woman draws her thread at every stitch of her needlework, any other woman can surmise her thoughts. ~Honore de Balzac


Stitch your stress away. ~Author Unknown


Knitting is a boon for those of us who are easily bored. I take my knitting everywhere to take the edge off of moments that would otherwise drive me stark raving mad. ~Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, At Knit's End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much


If the knitter is weary the baby will have no new bonnet. ~Irish Proverb


The priest was on a roll: "Each person you meet is worthy of your compassion!" he prayed loudly. "Sheep, too," the knitter mentally added. ~Dr. SunWolf


Wanted: a needle swift enough to sew this poem into a blanket. ~Charles Simic


In Seattle you haven't had enough coffee until you can thread a sewing machine while it's running. ~Jeff Bezos


A #6 aluminum needle has been known to furnish an excellent emergency shearpin for an outboard motor. ~Elizabeth Zimmerman


The best thing about doing needlepoint for very small children is that they are so uncritical. The don't say things like, "I see you've missed some stitches over here on the leg, was that intentional?" or "Was this creature blinded in a fight?" They will clasp it in their little arms and love it besottedly, inseparably as the thing becomes more and more rancid. ~Carole Berman and Jennifer Lazarus


All my scattering moments are taken up with my needle. ~Ellen Birdseye Wheaton, 1851


Asking a seamstress to mend is like asking Michelangelo to paint your garage. ~Author Unknown


Sewing fills my days, not to mention the living room, bedroom, and closets. ~Author Unknown


It took me years and years of trial efforts to work out that there is absolutely no knitting triumph I can achieve that my husband will think is worth being woken up for. ~Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, At Knit's End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much


Sewing: A creative mess is better than tidy idleness. ~Author Unknown


So much fabric, so little time! Or, sew much fabric, sew little time! ~Author Unknown


As ye sew, so shall ye rip. ~Author Unknown


There is no right way to knit; there is no wrong way to knit. So if anybody kindly tells you that what you are doing is "wrong," don't take umbrage; they mean well. Smile submissively, and listen, keeping your disagreement on an entirely mental level. They may be right, in this particular case, and even if not, they may drop off pieces of information which will come in very handy if you file them away carefully in your brain for future reference. ~Elizabeth Zimmerman


Veni, Vidi, Velcro. I came, I saw, I stuck around. ~Author Unknown


Any day spent sewing, is a good day. ~Author Unknown



A quilt will warm your body and comfort your soul. ~Author Unknown


My husband is a human pincushion. ~Author Unknown


My granddaughter came to spend a few weeks with me, and I decided to teach her to sew. After I had gone through a lengthy explanation of how to thread the machine, she stepped back, put her hands on her hips, and said in disbelief, "You mean you can do all that, but you can't play my Game Boy?" ~Author Unknown


Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to weave. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960


Woman has relied heretofore too entirely for her support on the needle - that one-eyed demon of destruction that slays thousands annually; that evil genius of our sex, which, in spite of all our devotion, will never make us healthy, wealthy, or wise. ~Elizabeth Cady Stanton


"Heirloom" is knitting code for "This pattern is so difficult that you would consider death a relief. ~Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, At Knit's End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much


I got a sewing machine for my husband! Good trade, huh? ~Author Unknown


When I learned to sew, I forgot how to cook. ~Author Unknown


When life throws you scraps, make a quilt. ~Author Unknown


Take your needle, my child, and work at your pattern; it will come out a rose by and by. Life is like that - one stitch at a time taken patiently and the pattern will come out all right like the embroidery. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes


I cannot count my day complete
'Til needle, thread and fabric meet.
~Author Unknown


Apart from yoga, meditation, reading, it has to be one of the most serene things to do (don't lose your needles though, that can create a severe lack of serenity). ~Carole Berman and Jennifer Lazarus, about needlepoint


Properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn't hurt the untroubled spirit, either. ~Elizabeth Zimmerman


Hem your blessings with thankfulness so they don't unravel. ~Author Unknown


I'd rather be stitchin'
than in the kitchen!
~Author Unknown


If I stitch fast enough, does it count as aerobic exercise? ~Author Unknown


Her needlework both plain and ornamental was excellent, and she might have put a sewing machine to shame. ~James Edward Austen-Leigh, about Jane Austen


I'm a material girl - want to see my fabric collection? ~Author Unknown


I hate a woman who offers herself because she ought to do so, and, cold and dry, thinks of her sewing when she's making love. ~Ovid


Useful and ornamental needlework, knitting, and netting are capable of being made, not only sources of personal gratification, but of high moral benefit, and the means of developing in surpassing loveliness and grace, some of the highest and noblest feelings of the soul. ~Author unknown, from The Ladies' Work Table Book, 1845


Needlepoint is a superb way to stop smoking and nibbling, and unlike counted cross stitch also allows the mind to wander. ~Carole Berman and Jennifer Lazarus


For people allergic to wool, one's heart can only bleed. ~Elizabeth Zimmerman


I'm itching to be stitching! ~Author Unknown


Memories are stitched with love. ~Author Unknown


Sewing forever, housework whenever. ~Author Unknown


Don't needle the seamstress. ~Author Unknown


Quilters never grow old, they just go to pieces. ~Author Unknown


Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads which sew people together through the years. ~Simone Signoret


Women like to sit down with trouble - as if it were knitting. ~Ellen Glasgow


Many estates are spent in the getting, since women for tea forsake spinning and knitting, and men for punch forsake hewing and splitting. ~Benjamin Franklin


The innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care...
~William Shakespeare


Everybody tells me that they would love to knit, but they don't have time. I look at people's lives and I can see opportunity and time for knitting all over the place. The time spent riding the bus each day? That's a pair of socks over a month. Waiting in line? Mittens. Watching TV? Buckets of wasted time that could be an exquisite lace shawl. ~Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, At Knit's End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much


I love sewing and have plenty of material witnesses. ~Author Unknown


Good friends are like quilts - they age with you yet never lose their warmth. ~Author Unknown


A family is a patchwork of love. ~Author Unknown


In the crazy quilt of life, I'm glad you're in my block of friends. ~Author Unknown


Quilters never cut corners. ~Author Unknown


I'm in therapy and sewing is cheaper than a psychiatrist. ~Author Unknown


Love is the thread that binds us. ~Author Unknown


Really, all you need to become a good knitter are wool, needles, hands, and slightly below-average intelligence. Of course, superior intelligence, such as yours and mine, is an advantage. ~Elizabeth Zimmerman


Our lives are like quilts - bits and pieces, joy and sorrow, stitched with love. ~Author Unknown


Those who sleep under a quilt, sleep under a blanket of love. ~Author Unknown


Quilters know all the angles. ~Author Unknown


Grandma quilts have love in every stitch. ~Author Unknown


A bed without a quilt is like a sky without stars. ~Author Unknown


Quilt 'til you wilt. ~Author Unknown


Thank you to Ellen for submitting some of these quotes.