Children entranced by sewing workshop

BANGOR – Tree Heckler of Glenburn helped eight children ages 6-11, and four moms – not required to disclose their ages or identities – learn embroidery basics at Bangor Public Library last week. I was there because of my interest in – oh, all right, obsession with embroidery.

“Boys,” Heckler said, aiming her comment at the only boy in the group, “don’t like to embroider flowers, so we’re not going to do that.”

“Good,” the child said, and all the little girls laughed.

The children selected scraps of brightly colored felt, and BPL children’s librarian Anne Mundy handed out large blunt needles already threaded. She also was in charge of the single pair of scissors needed for the session.

Heckler instructed the children to draw a single line – straight or wiggly – on the felt. Then she demonstrated how to do a backstitch along the line.

It wasn’t exactly easy to pierce the felt with a blunt needle, but the children grasped the concept quickly. With the help of Heckler, Mundy, the moms and me, they soon had their lines covered with stitches – short, long and in between, roving along the felt in exuberant squiggles. When they came to the end of the floss in the needle, the children eagerly threaded the needles again and kept on stitching.

Several of the moms said they knew how to do counted cross-stitch, but it had been a while. Neither had attempted as yet to teach their daughters to embroider.

“Can we do this when we get home?” one little girl asked, eagerly. Her mom nodded her head, yes.

The boy in the group was so intent on embroidering the outline of a boat he’d drawn on felt, he didn’t want to leave until his mom assured him he could finish the project at home.

Heckler, who grew up in Brewer and began stitching at age 4, began her embroidery workshop with a “‘show and tell” of some of the embroidery she has done. One of her fanciful wearable art pieces is a haunted house featuring an owl and spider webs.

Several other pieces, which have an air of enchantment about them, sport large orange flowers and friendly-looking insects. Her mother and grandmother taught her to embroider and she is skilled at cross-stitch, hardanger, Elizabethan goldwork, beading, ribbon embroidery and sewing, in general.

Her presentation included a minihistory of embroidery and an overview of the tools – needles, thread, scissors and hoops – embroiderers use.

Heckler’s passion for embroidery is also her business, Howling Threads Designs. She teaches embroidery as part of the Windover at Wassookeag after-school art program. For information, call Heckler at 942-1399, or Mari Abercrombie at 234-4503.