sewing magick...

[Ankou]

Hello my darlings

I've recently fallen into the quilting obsession and realized how meditative and spiritual this craft (as most traditional crafts) can be. I've been googling around the world but can't find many pages by or for those who use sewing as part of their ritual. I've begun doing a few little things on my own, such as wrapping a knot three times at the begining and end of a piece of thread, for the three fold nature... and a tip I did pick up on the net was to keep all the lost thread ends in a bottle to seal when the piece is finnished. This is supposed to be marked with a seal of protection for the object and the one who uses it.

Does anyone of the many craft makers here use sewing rituals they feel like sharing or know of such things? I'd especially be interested to know if anyone has traditions passed down to them if they come from a family of quilters or witches. I think my grandmother may have had many little "habits" which came down to her, but I will never now get to ask her about.

Hee Hee, it's a thread thread....

Love and Light,

Ankou

 

[inanna_tarot]

One my mother gave to me was to always keep the left over bits of wool (we are knitters mostly) put them in a bottle or box to act like a Witches Bottle. Keep it with your crafty bits and all the negative vibes around those pieces be they in the house or far away, will have to filter through the bits of yarn and cotton. When the box/bottle gets to the point of overflowing, burn them (usually done at yule on the family hearth).
Other than that I dont have any, well not that I know of lol.

If I make tarot bags before putting a deck in there I ask that the bag and its contents will always stay near me. I have bags that I made 10 years ago that I still have and I put it down to this charm

I love sewing and being crafty. Its the only time I can feel comfortable that I am truely connecting to the weight of all that female ancestory, sitting working our threads for necessity and pleasure.

Blessings,
Sezo
x

 

[CandyApple]

what neat things to do. I am a crocheter and I sew but I have never thought of doing that. Thanks for posting the tips. That is really lovely.

 

[Ankou]

Thanks Inanna!

I hadn't thought of bottling up the negative and disposing it in ritual, but it sounds like a great way of working... If you think of any other little habits you may have and haven't paid attention to do let me know! I find that alot of my families traditions come from old ways of working, even if they are all Christians now. I'm forever discovering little things around the house which were derived from charms and spells but my family held onto because it was part if the family's heritage. I find it so amazing... and comforting.

Love and Light,

Ankou

 

[tarotbear]

When you insert the threads from your sewing, intone: "Thread Charm- Protect From Harm." When you fill the jar/bottle (always pick a small one!) you can seal the jar, inscribe a pentacle on it, then place it in the highest place in you house that you can.

 

[zorya]

i love these ideas! thanks for starting this thread ankou.

i intentionally make some kind of small error in things i make. it's a little about being human and about humility, and has the added benefit that it proves the item was handmade.

there is a kind of beauty in small 'errors', that machine-made items lack. i guess it's sort of a wabi-sabi beauty, which to me is a spiritual thing.

 

[Cerulean]

There was the mention of burying old needles at a shrine...

...Japanese tradition. But I don't think it's encouraged nowadays, these prickly things have a way of coming up and OUCH....

Some quilting things:

http://www.cottonpatch.co.uk/acatalog/japanese_books.html

Temari (Teh-mah-rhee):

http://www.temari.com/

Te Mari are two words, kind of a repeat like Round Ball or Round Circle, depends on use...here it repeats the rounding shape...again, I have aging sources! A vague use of Mari can sometimes mean from a far place, which I read once but could not find back-up...could depend on usage. Not many Mari's I know nowadays would like to be referred to as a ball, so I never refer to common meaning when meeting a Japanese "Mari" !

Cerulean

 

[Ankou]

Thanks for mentioning the included mistake Zorya, I hadn't thought of putting that on the list, but it definately should be. I ran across that in Native American beading and in country quilting circles as a child. The conncept as I was told was that only the Creator made anything perfectly, and it was out of respect that a mistake should always be included.

Cerulean, I'm off to see those links I love the idea of burying old needles, but perhaps they should be placed in a needle case first!

Love and Light,

Ankou

 

[tarotbear]

The conncept as I was told was that only the Creator made anything perfectly, and it was out of respect that a mistake should always be included.

I've always wondered about that theory. As a quilter in the 1970s I heard it many times that you 'HAD' to put an error in your work. I always thought that that was presumptuous! It means that you as a human were capable of being perfect and you HAD to put a mistake in to make your human-made work imperfect! How presumptuous can you be to state you HAD to put an error in it? LOLOLOL!

Don't know about you people, but my making something by hand always has a flaw in it somewhere - I was always good at 'incorporating' or disguising them! I know they are there- and so does the Creator - even if you can't see them.

You will find many an antique quilt with one miscolored block or even one pieced in upside down - probably because the sewer was too busy socializing (quilting bees were a big social thing) and screwed up! Her way to cover her stupidity was to say 'Oh - I DID IT DELIBERATELY so that the work would not be perfect and be an affront to God!' - nice way to cover your butt! LOL!!!

 

[tarotbear]

Speaking of broken needles -

There is a diffference between a thread charm and a witches bottle - but they overlap. A thread charm is a thread charm - the threads 'snag' the evil or whatever and ensnare it forever - sort of like a dream catcher.

A witches bottle is much more elaborate - usually a bottle filled with sharp things like broken glass and broken needles, bent pins, old razor blades, etc. Some add a drop or two of their own blood, then fill the bottle with their own urine.[Piss On You!] It is sealed and buried upside down either under the front stoop on at a corner of your property - depending on the source you read.