Sewing Circles

I was checking my email yesterday and saw one from my daughter "...Saw this and thought of you!"

  

          It was not the picture above (although I think it is pretty cool), it was a link to a database in the Massachusetts Historical Society titled 95 Sewing Circle Records, 1893-1961, 2 boxes, 4 cased volumes. If you did not know already my daughter is working on her doctorate hence the reason for her actually running across this bit of history. She was doing a search for "Women, Societies and Clubs, Upper Class, Massachusetts". I won't go into the details of why she was doing just this, but I wanted to share with everyone the description of just what was the '95 Sewing Circle:

"Meeting schedules, scrapbooks, photographs, and miscellaneous correspondence of the ’95 Sewing Circle, a club for upper-class Boston women begun in 1895. Most members of the exclusive club were born in the 1870s and "came out" in the early to mid-1890s. Although the title suggests a charitable purpose, it appears that most club activities were social in nature. Profiles of members, with photographs and vital information, are contained in the scrapbooks. Also included are 3 reels of movie film and miscellaneous club artifacts.

I have bolded and italicized what truly caught my attention. I love it! Women have been getting together for a long long time sewing and talking and sharing and laughing and sometimes crying. Sometimes we do sew for charitable causes, but mostly it is social. We inspire each other in our craft as well as support one another through the many trials of life. I know lots of women who are in "Quilting Bee's" and church groups that meet regularly. Here at Sew It Up Studio, we have been hostessing our "Sewist's Day Camp" this summer once a week in which you can come and go from 10an-5pm, working on your many UFO's!  Our "Sew It Up Club meets once a month in order that our customers may all share their projects with one another .  .  . and visit! One of our dear customers hosts a "Craft Night" monthly at her home. What a fantastic idea! I am thinking perhaps we need a "Lunch Bunch" this fall just to have an excuse to "talk sewing"!

I love our craft of sewing! And, it is so much more than just sewing! We should all try to introduce just one of our friends this fall to sewing. Just consider what they have been missing!