Episode 37: Needlepoint!

Chances are you have heard of Gee's Bend and its famous quilters. Maybe you've even been to the Airing of the Quilts Festival that takes place in Gee's Bend every October (if so, we are jealous!!). But did you know that a quilting co-op was formed with quilters from Gee's Bend and other communities in Wilcox County in 1966? The Freedom Quilting Bee is the story of how Minder Coleman, a community leader and quilter, formed a co-op with other quilters in the area to capitalize on an auction of local quilts in New York City. The Freedom Quilting Bee, formed one year to the day after the end of the March on Selma, had close ties to the Civil Rights Movement and created economic opportunities for its members and their families. In just one year, the Bee doubled the going rate of a quilt and increased the average family's income by 25%. They also created beautiful quilts. Using patterns made in the community for over 100 years, quilters such as Lucy Mingo, Estelle Witherspoon, Nettie Young, and Willie Abrams made quilts for tastemakers like Babe Paley, Sister Parish, and others, and created contracts with Saks, Bonwit Teller, and more. They were covered by the New York Times; Diana Vreeland wrote them up in Vogue. They created a storefront-sized quilt for Sakowitz Department Store in Houston. And then, they were virtually excluded from the Gee's Bend fever that swept the nation. Listen in as we celebrate the hard-working, "odds-beating" (to quote the Freedom Quilting Bee Legacy) women of this inspiring organization. 🪡Learn about Georgia's unique three-dimensional state quilt block 🪡Find out the real story behind Bill Arnett's "discovery" of the Gee's Bend quilters (spoiler alert: it has to do with the FQB!) 🪡Find out how corduroy, Liberty fabrics, and daishiki prints came to be in Gee's Bend museum quilts We hope you will join us for this very special episode. Show notes and sources here: https://tinyurl.com/HHepisode41 Sponsored by our Patreon Patrons. Thank you for your support! Visit patreon.com/handmadehistorypodcast to learn more and sign up to get our posts in your inbox. Have a question, comment, or idea for a future episode? Email us at [email protected]. Or visit our website at handmadehistorypodcast.com for more information.

Alicia went with our Other Sister, Monica, to Frocktails Boston this October. Tune in as Alicia and Monica recap their experience, from bingo boards to raffle prizes, the fantastic theme (Enchanted Forest), favorite frocks, and more! Did you go to Frocktails? We would love to connect with you on Instagram--tag us @handmadehistorypodcast and tell us about your frock! This free-form-ish chat was full of sewing-related people, products, patterns, and more. Here are all of the things we mentioned: Frocktails was organized by Renee & Florence Cashmerette was the lead sponsor, along with Boston Fiber Company, Pintuck Press, and The Linen Lab Alicia wore a modified McCalls M7493 Monica's dress was the very lovely ME2016 from Know Me Patterns by MimiG We met Heather from The Very Serious Crafts Podcast Alicia picked up a shirt in the clothing exchange and it was @stitchedbyannie  The most coveted prize was definitely the Sew Tites magnetic cutting system However Alicia was really hoping to win a year's membership to Seamwork pattern company Monica loved seeing Friday Pattern Company's Saguaro Set IRL We saw a bunch of very pretty Japanese knot-style bags like this one The graphic designer for the event was Monique Aimee -- she also had an amazing outfit and a hand-knit knot-style bag There were a few Ashton Tops by Helen's Closet Patterns Our mutual favorite outfit was a white iridescent dress made by a super amazing sewing enthusiast who also crocheted the Daisy Chain Top to wear on top of it and left trailing unwoven ends--fantastic style Monica also loved Julie Eilber's giant flower scarf/poncho Finally, we met someone who was on Threadloop. She gave us delicious caramels even though we aren't on Threadloop. We hope you enjoyed our conversation. We had a total blast at Frocktails Boston and can't wait to go next year!  

This episode is brought to you by Felted Sky, a needlefelting kit company. If you're looking to refresh your fiber stash or grab a mini-kit, check out feltedsky.com today. And as a special treat to our Handmade History Podcast listeners, they're offering 20% off of their entire Winter Collection now through December 14, 2026. Just go to feltedsky.com and use code Handmade20 at checkout. The short story: Wool. Is. Magic!  Thanks to some special (slightly magical) properties, wool fibers love to snuggle up and shrink, making it possible to make fabric from throwing wool around. Or perhaps putting it in your shoes and going on a pilgrimage, as Saint Clement is said to have done.  Join us this week to talk about felt, from needlefelting miniature owls to creating walls for a yurt. You'll learn: 🇲🇳 How people in Central Asia and Mongolia have made felt for hundreds of years using wool, leather, and rope 🦉How a small group of people in New England repurposed industrial felting machines to invent needlefelting--and spawned an adorable trend of tiny animal creation 🇹🇷 How one of the oldest human archaeological sites shows us that felting is (probably) ten thousand years old! 📖 Join us for a readalong of What You Are Looking for Is in the Library by Michiko Ayoyama. Grab a copy at your library or use our affiliate link and join us on Patreon, Instagram, or Facebook. We start reading October 28, 2026 (and of course you can join in anytime!).  🪡 Join us for a craftalong using Felted Sky's Christmas Gnome Kit at the end of December. You can use any kit you like! Get 20% off of their entire Winter Collection now through December 14, 2026. Just go to feltedsky.com and use code Handmade20 at checkout. Show notes here: https://tinyurl.com/hhepisode40 Visit patreon.com/handmadehistorypodcast to learn more and sign up to get our posts in your inbox. Have a question, comment, or idea for a future episode? Email us at [email protected]. Or visit our website at handmadehistorypodcast.com for more information. Thanks for listening! Bye!

It's officially spooky season, and this week we're talking about crafts that people have used for thousands of years to protect themselves from witches and the evil eye. Whether or not you believe in supernatural phenomena, these forces have driven people to carve, burn, stitch, and create amulets and other protections since the time of the Neanderthals. Did you know... 🧹The largest collection of witches marks in England was found carved into a cave wall...by two people on a cave tour? 👻At least one soldier made a witch bottle for protection...during the Civil War? 🧿The nazar is one of the oldest amulets used to protect against the evil eye in the world...and it was made into an emoji in 2018? Join us for a tour through the millenia, with, as always, fun rabbit holes and sidequests (spoiler alert: there a cryptid in this episode 😈). Show notes and sources here: https://tinyurl.com/hhepisode39 Sponsored by our Patreon Patrons. Thank you for your support! Visit patreon.com/handmadehistorypodcast to learn more and sign up to get our posts in your inbox. Have a question, comment, or idea for a future episode? Email us at [email protected]. Or visit our website at handmadehistorypodcast.com for more information.

A milliner of fabulous hats & pillar of the Black community and the creator of the iconic cowboy hat both started their companies in Philadelphia, PA. Mae Reeves and JB Stetson's iconic work could not look less alike, but both of these epic American hatmakers shared a love for their local communities and left their mark on the trade. In this episode, you'll learn... 👒About the hat shop you can visit in the Smithsonian 🎩The truth behind the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland--and its connection to hatmaking in real life 🤠 Where the first cowboys & cowgirls came from -- spoiler alert, it's not the American West! Show notes and sources here: https://tinyurl.com/HHepisode38 Sponsored by our Patreon Patrons. Thank you for your support! Visit patreon.com/handmadehistorypodcast to learn more and sign up to get our posts in your inbox. Have a question, comment, or idea for a future episode? Email us at [email protected]. Or visit our website at handmadehistorypodcast.com for more information.

What do Mary Martin, Rosey Grier, and Loreta Swit have in common? They all wrote needlepoint books! We're kicking off Season 3 with a deep dive into needlepoint. With stops at King Tut's tomb in 1922, Edo-period Japan, and Renaissance Italy, we take you on a tour of the stitches, materials, and makers that made needlepoint into the wildly popular craft it is today. Highlights include A unique counted running stitch called Kogin Where Berlin woolwork sits on the embroidery evolutionary tree Perhaps the priciest needlepoint kit on the market today, courtesy of Fendi We also answer the big question: What's the difference between needlepoint and cross-stitch? Find out if you agree with us! Listen in and share with a needlepoint-obsessed friend. Show notes and sources here: https://tinyurl.com/HHepisode37 Sponsored by our Patreon Patrons--shout out to Maggie! Thank you for your support. Visit patreon.com/handmadehistorypodcast to learn more and sign up to get our posts in your inbox. Have a question, comment, or idea for a future episode? Email us at [email protected]. Or visit our website at handmadehistorypodcast.com for more information.  

Join us for a very special bonus episode! Alicia sat down to chat with Jane Healey, the author of The Saturday Evening Girls Club, a novel set in the early 1900s. The SEGC was a real club that launched a pottery venture, Paul Revere Pottery. Bowls, plates, tiles, and vases from this small shop are held in museums today, and sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Most of the girls in the SEG were first-generation Americans in Jewish and Italian families in Boston's North End. The Saturday Evening Girls Club follows an imaginary SEG, Caprice who wishes to open her own hat shop, and three of her friends, who face struggles in their families, work, and social lives. The intertwined stories of these four girls are inspiring and relatable.  Alicia and Jane talk about: Why Jane decided to combine Edith Gurrier, the founder of the SEGC, and her partner, Edith Brown, the co-founder of Paul Revere Pottery, and what she would do differently today The annual SEG tradition that she wishes she could have put into the story Why we still to relate to the struggles of turn-of-the-century girls and women today The special emails she's gotten from descendants This episode also caps off our readalong of Jane's book. You can find all of the posts for this readalong (and join in anytime!) at patreon.com/handmadehistorypodcast. Grab your favorite handcraft and listen in for fun facts to text to your crafting bestie! Have a question, comment, or idea for a future episode? Email us at [email protected]. Find links, images, and more on the free blog post for this episode; visit our Patreon page at patreon.com/handmadehistorypodcast. Or visit our website at handmadehistorypodcast.com for more information.

If you were a 90s kid (like Alicia was) or the little sister of a 90s kid (like Sonia was), chances are Laura Ashley influenced your bedroom design. Laura Ashley, born Laura Mountney in Wales in 1925, started her iconic, eponymous company by screenprinting in her Pimlico apartment with her husband, Bernard. Inspired by a Women's Institute exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum, Laura wanted to make a patchwork quilt--but she couldn't find any fabric that she liked. So, she designed her own. This episode is sponsored by Quiltfolk. Travel stitch by stitch with Quiltfolk — wherever you like to read… or sew. Use coupon code HandmadeHistory for 20% off your order on Quiltfolk.com. Soon, the Ashleys were selling scarves (a la Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday) and tea towels in shops in London--and just a few years later, they opened their own London showroom. Listen in to learn: How the Ashleys went from two shops and a showroom in the UK to 450 shops around the world The interesting lifestyle choice that Laura made in order to escape a cramped cottage in Kent The Laura Ashley brand today (it's still classy!) What exactly the Women's Institute is A pretty sidetrack about smocking Grab your work-in-progress and your crafting bestie and listen in for more fun facts and trips down rabbit holes. (And deep apologies for Alicia's butchering of Welsh place names!) This is our last regular episode of Season 2 - stay tuned for one more bonus episode, and then we will take a break and be back in September! Show notes and sources here. Have a question, comment, or idea for a future episode? Email us at [email protected]. Find links, images, and more on the free blog post for this episode; visit our Patreon page at patreon.com/handmadehistorypodcast. Or visit our website at handmadehistorypodcast.com for more information. Also, in May 2026 we are doing a readalong of Jane Healey's The Saturday Evening Girls Club (this is an affiliate link--your purchase will support Handmade History at no cost to you). Grab a copy of this fantastic historical fiction novel and join us on Instagram, Facebook, or Patreon. 

Close your eyes and picture a sampler. We bet you are picturing a cross-stitched design with an alphabet on it. This type of sampler is quite common in England and North America, but there are many other types of samplers. In fact, samplers have been made in almost every culture around the world for several thousand years. This episode is sponsored by Embroydica. Visit Embroydica.com and become part of a growing global archive of embroidery and creative expression. Also check out Alicia's blog post about samplers on Embroydica! Listen in to learn about: The oldest preserved sampler, from the same Peruvian culture that created the mysterious Nazca lines. The oldest synthetic dye, Egyptian Blue, plus how to make it yourself (with a thousand-degree kiln) The oldest British sampler, which is also the oldest signed sampler, the Jane Bostocke sampler 3-D globe samplers (!!!) And so much more! Grab your favorite handcraft and listen in for fun facts to text to your crafting bestie! Show notes and sources: https://tinyurl.com/HHepisode35 Have a question, comment, or idea for a future episode? Email us at [email protected]. Find links, images, and more on the free blog post for this episode; visit our Patreon page at patreon.com/handmadehistorypodcast. Or visit our website at handmadehistorypodcast.com for more information. Also, in May 2026 we are doing a readalong of Jane Healey's The Saturday Evening Girls Club (this is an affiliate link--your purchase will support Handmade History at no cost to you). Grab a copy of this fantastic historical fiction novel and join us on Instagram, Facebook, or Patreon. 

The Saturday Evening Girls began as a story hour in Boston's North End at a trade school for young people--and quickly grew into something more. This episode is sponsored by our Patreon Patrons. Thank you!  We invite you to sign up to our Patreon at any level. Free members get a blog post with links and photos from each episode. Paid members get special discounts to crafty businesses as well as access to our Discord. The Saturday Evening Girls Club included 250 girls at its peak--and launched pottery business that made these girls and women into "icons of the Arts & Crafts movement," according to the Met. Join us for a deep dive into Paul Revere Pottery and the SEG, where we talk about: Edith Gurrier, the unique woman who started the SEG and PRP, including her connections to Louisa May Alcott and Harriet Tubman. Helen Osbourne Storrow, the benefactor of the club, who knew the value of a good vacation. Sara Galner, the most collected pottery artist today--whose tile recently sold for almost $300,000 Fanny Goldstein, who created Jewish Book Month and became curator of Judaica at the Boston Public Library--the SEG was her higher education Numerous other girls and women who made beautiful pottery that remains collectible today--and graduated college at a rate three times that of their peers Plus, with this episode we kick off a read-a-long of Jane Healey's The Saturday Evening Girls Club (this is an affiliate link--your purchase will support Handmade History at no cost to you). Grab a copy of this fantastic historical fiction novel and join us on May 6 on Instagram, Facebook, or Patreon.  Grab your favorite handcraft and listen in for fun facts to text to your crafting bestie! Show notes and sources: https://tinyurl.com/HHepisode34 Have a question, comment, or idea for a future episode? Email us at [email protected]. Find links, images, and more on the free blog post for this episode; visit our Patreon page at patreon.com/handmadehistorypodcast. Or visit our website at handmadehistorypodcast.com for more information.