Barbara Gilbert got her first sewing kit at the age of six as a present from her grandma. It was one of those old-fashioned, wicker-work baskets.
Now 65, and retired from a career teaching home economics, Gilbert still remembers that sewing kit.
She also recalls how she and her grandma selected a picture from one of her colouring books to use as her first exercise in embroidery, giving life, colour and texture to the picture with thread.
“My grandma did embroidery, so I guess I did embroidery,” said Gilbert, of Saanich, during an interview.
Gilbert carried on throughout her life. She has been president of both the Embroiderers’ Guild of Victoria and the Embroiderers’ Association of Canada.
She has also branched out, making embroidery an art form. She recreates her own visions, inspired by courses at places such as the Victoria College of Art, using various, mixed materials, old and new.
But they are always held together with stitches.
“It’s called textile art,” Gilbert said.
“I’m pretty traditionally trained and I’ve taken stitching and guild courses that come out of England. But I am now working on more modern interpretations. But I still use the old embroidery techniques.”
She and other embroiderers will have a booth, provide demonstrations and take questions on Friday and Saturday at Pearkes Recreation Centre, one of the many displays, seminars, classes and short courses at Creative Stitches and Crafting Alive.
Organizers say the show offers variety from the world of fabric and textiles, such as knitting, quilting, scrapbooking, beading, sewing, and creating and refitting fashionable clothing.
The show will include more than 70 classes on various aspects of sewing or knitting. Vendors will also be on hand with supplies and the latest sewing machines.
In a telephone interview from Toronto, Nori Richens, Creative Stitches show manager, said sewing is enjoying a resurgence in popularity, especially among younger people.
“People are getting back into handmade items,” Richens said. “They want to get back to learning how to create and make something all of their own.”
Even quilting, she said, has gone beyond the realm of something to keep you warm in bed at night. A quilter can sew simple panels together or create an entire story in pictures.
“It is a true art,” Richens said. “The opportunities are endless in the creativity a person can apply to their quilt.
“You can follow a very basic pattern or, if you have a vision, you can create a picture or tell story. That’s what quilting is all about — telling a story.”
The Creative Stitches show will also feature fashion shows, including one created for kids by kids, aged eight to 13.
“This is to help bring in the next generation of sewers,” Richens said.
Gilbert made sure she instructed her own daughter in the art of the needle. She can still remember her girl sitting on her lap, helping at the sewing machine.
And when her daughter grew up and moved to England — where she teaches and dances — one of the items to go with her was her sewing machine.
Gilbert made her daughter a going-away present of an electrical transformer so she could use it in the U.K., where electricity is delivered at different voltage and amperage than in North America.
“And in the past year she has gone back to handwork and creating things,” Gilbert said.
For Gilbert, embroidery, either doing the needlework by hand or by machine, is one of life’s great relaxations. In many ways, it’s also a link with the past.
Gilbert can recreate the needlework and stitching, so often spotted in framed, antique samplers from centuries past. The old-time seamstresses used these samplers to show off the variety of stitches in which they were expert, while spelling out things like small prayers or Biblical verses.
One of her own most treasured possessions is an antique needlepoint bookmark kept for generations in the family Bible.
It’s embroidered work created over a slip of paper originally dotted with tiny holes to take the needle.
Today, embroiderers can even handcraft things like their own lace using modern twists on an old idea. Cards are punctured with many small holes to direct the needle. But these cards are created from a material that dissolves in water. Once the stitching is complete, the card can be washed away, leaving a piece of lace behind.
“As an overall definition, we [embroiderers] consider anything done with a needle and thread as embroidery,” Gilbert said.
“Technically, we also consider quilting as embroidery because it’s done with a needle and thread. The quilters, of course, would say, ‘No.’ ”
• Creative Stitches and Crafting Alive is on March 13, 9 a.m.-6 p.m., and March, 14, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. at Pearkes Recreation Centre.
•Two-day passes are $10 in advance or $12 at the door. Children, six to 12, $2. Children under six free. Details at creativestitchesshow.com.
