The Traditional Silk Braids of Japan
Meet Masako Kinohita and learn how she first encountered kumihimo cords as a young woman in Japan. Learn about the history of Japanese silk braiding, which dates back to the year 234. Enjoy the elegant historical photographs and illustrations of traditional Japanese woven and braided bands, and see Masako’s modern replicas of historical kumihimo braids. Plus, learn how to make your own braids with detailed instructions and diagrams of the process.

Peruvian Maquitos: Colorful Sleeves Knit Traditions Together
Journey to Peru with Carol Noble and explore the history of the colorful handknitted arm gaiters known as maquitos. Maquitos, worn along with plain-weave black jackets or shirts, chullos (pointed caps with earflaps), and crocheted sashes adorned with pompons, are part of the indigenous men’s costumes in Huancavelica Department in Central Peru. Learn about modern versions of the manquitos, and knit your own colorful pair with a pattern adaption for these colorful arm warmers.

A New Eloquence: Northwest Coast Indians’ Button Blankets
Journey to the Northwest Coast with Janet Berlo and share her captivation with the ornately adorned red and navy blue tribal capes she witnessed at community festivals. Janet describes the capes as being “further embellished with mother-of-pearl buttons, or plastic buttons, or rough abalone shell appendages, or metallic sequins. These button blankets move in the firelight or the spotlight as their wearer’s dance and make the eloquent speeches so fundamental to Northwest Coast Native American ceremonials.” You’ll learn the history of these captivating capes and enjoy the colorful photographs.

Trapunto: A Gift of Light and Shadow
Meet John Robert Degge, a harness maker from the 1850s, and his wife Mary, and learn all about the whole-cloth quilt (a quilt constructed of one piece of fabric) designed by John and sewn by Mary for their daughter. This exquisite handsewn quilt features hundreds of precise stitches and stuffed with a technique known as trapunto. This technique involves carefully moving the threads of the backing cloth aside, stuffing the motifs, and moving the threads back into place. Add further elegance and pleasure to tea time with a pattern and instructions for quilting your own trapunto tea cozy.

A History of Costume in Miniature: Betty Kingsbury’s Figurines
“On permanent display at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon, are more than sixty miniature figurines, each less than 10 inches high, dressed in clothing representing different periods in the history of costume. Their elaborately ornamented costumes rang with such authenticity that I sought to know more about the creator and her work. I learned that Betty Kingsbury, a slight, energetic, eighty-six-year-old artist, had crafted and meticulously costumed the figurines.” Join Ruth Flanders in an exploration of these incredible historically costumed figurines.

The Very Stuff
Meet needlepoint artist and poet Stephen Beal and enjoy excerpts from his collection of poems The Very Stuff. The whole collection of poems is dedicated to and inspired by DMC cotton embroidery floss, and each poem is named for its DMC color number.

Magazine published in January 1995 by Long Thread Media LLC

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