Embroidered Stories: Women's Domestic Needlework from Italian Diaspora

07/13/2026

"It is titled Know Their Names after an interactive series of databases compiled by Al Jazeera naming some of the tens of thousands of victims of Israeli attacks. In January 2024, a long list included the names and ages of some of the children who were known at the time to have been killed in Gaza. Overall, Israel’s attacks since the start of its latest war on Gaza in October 2023 have killed more than 20,000 children."

Diana Williams embroiders names of 300 babies killed by Israel on gown, an evocative work she hopes will reach New York.

06/08/2026

Le cucitrici : Voices of Montréal’s Italian Seamstresses
Discover the little-known history of immigrant Italian seamstresses whose work profoundly marked the city and its communities.

Museum and civic space in Montreal

11/21/2025

RECLAIMING OUR COLLECTIVE INHERITANCE: A Palestinian Diaspora Collection
November 15, 2025 to January 17, 2026

The Palestinian Thobe is more than an embroidered garment—it is a living archive. For Palestinians in the diaspora, these intricately stitched dresses are tangible connections to a homeland many have never seen, yet fiercely carry within them. Each motif tells a story—of identity, ancestral village, and unbroken resilience. Tragically, many Thobes have been lost to time, war, and dispossession—from heirloom dresses smuggled out of Palestine to stolen Thobes rediscovered in antique markets, their narratives preserved only in the whispers of fading thread.

RECLAIMING OUR COLLECTIVE INHERITANCE: A Palestinian Diaspora Collection November 15, 2025 to January 17, 2026 The Palestinian Thobe is more than an embroidered garment—it is a living archive. For Palestinians in the diaspora, these intricately stitched dresses are tangible connections to a homela...

04/26/2025

The Women of Steel Project began in February 2021, aspiring to memorialize these women through public art, such as murals, statues, portraits, photographs, and documentaries. The first phase concluded with the unveiling of Les Femmes d’Acier mural on October 18, 2023, at St-Simon Apôtre Park, in what is still referred to as Montreal’s Garment District, thanks to a partnership between the Tyxna Art Collective and numerous community organizations. More phases are planned, including additional artwork and a commemorative statue.

With community support, as well as participation in events like AccentiFest at the University of Calabria in 2023 and New York’s Triangle Fire Memorial, the project has fostered international connections and gathered historical testimonies. Through this collective effort, the Women of Steel Project seeks to ensure that the legacy of these pioneering women endures as a testament to their resilience, contribution, and inspiration for future generations.

The Women of Steel Project stands as a powerful tribute to Montreal’s immigrant textile and garment workers, honoring their resilience, sacrifices, and lasting contributions to the community. By capturing their stories through art and public memorials, the project celebrates the strength and solidarity of these women in the face of hardship. This initiative not only preserves the memory of these pioneering women but, as future phases unfold, it will inspire generations to recognize and value the enduring impact of immigrant women on Montreal’s cultural and economic fabric.

The Women of Steel project pays tribute to the Italian immigrant women of Montreal’s first generation who dedicated their lives to the textile industry, particularly in the Chabanel, St-Urbain and St-Viateur street areas. These women, essential to both the industry and their families, faced arduou...

03/12/2025

https://pieceworkmagazine.com/the-sampler-issue-call-for-submissions-piecework-summer-2025/

From practical to fanciful, samplers are a great way to study crafts of the past.

11/19/2024

We remember Sandra Mortola Gilbert (1936-2024) who's poem "Daguerreotype: Lace Maker" opens 'Embroidered Stories':

From days spent bending over the pattern,
eyes and fingers caught in the tightening
mazes of the lace,
she has assumed the shape
of a hook, its deft ferocity,
thin glitter and abstraction.
She stares into the camera, very old,
no children now, no stewpots, never a berrying
afternoon with sun like pure hot iron
at her back, nothing but a shawl
on her shoulders now, black and thick:
and her eyes, passionate hooks,
say only the lace, the lace is left,
only the white paths, the stitches like steps
in a dance whose meaning is still unknown,
the walls of thread impossible to cross,
the tiny corners, the fields of webs and flowers,
the serious knotting and unknotting at the end.

10/10/2024

New exhibit in London
BELONGINGS challenges anti-immigration narratives and creates pathways for belonging with people seeking sanctuary. It centres an exhibition by renowned artist Susan Aldworth featuring the imagined contents of the suitcase her grandmother brought with her when she was migrating from Northern Italy to London in 1924. Thirty-five individual antique clothes, including a nightgown that was in the original suitcase, are hand-embroidered with family photographs, stories and recipes. Suspended in mid-air, they highlight the transitory and emotional nature of an uprooted life.

Visit this new, free exhibition in The Arcade challenging anti-immigration narratives and creating pathways of belonging with people seeking sanctuary.

05/27/2024

SNL on fast fashion!

05/17/2024

Needlework by Leonilde Frieri Ruberto, Laura E. Ruberto's grandmother, at the Heinz History Center

eMuseum is a powerful web publishing toolkit that integrates seamlessly with TMS to bring dynamic collection content and images to your website, intranet, and kiosks.

04/26/2024

"Learning to sew, crochet, and embroider from my mother and grandmothers as a child laid the groundwork for my career as a textile historian. While in college, I attended a quilting bee benefiting a member of the Mennonite community facing health issues with my maternal grandmother, Adella Kanagy, in Pennsylvania. When I shared that I was studying quilting in my fiber arts program, a warm chuckle rippled across the room. My professors, however, did not have a sense of humor about my affection for “craft,” a word they uttered as if poisonous. At a critique for an installation of numerous doilies that I handmade, purchased, and inherited, one professor couldn’t fathom that my project was not meant as an ironic joke, but I stood firm in my sincerity."

When will art institutions finally pay respect to our foremothers’ artistry?