All I need is close at hand
nothing up my sleeve.
Whisper quiet my appendages
dangling on fragrant weave.
Sweetgrass and pine needles
from our precious earth
embellished with delft tiles
scavenged from hearth.
I can hem, seam, baste
and smock.
Embellish, embroider, repair
and flock.
When day is done I put it away
dreaming of sweet grass sway.
Author notes
image found at: http://www.geocities.com/heartland/trail/9114/harbour/chatelaine.html
A contest entry
- Victorian Parlor Game - Chatelaine by ea.
600 points, ended August 1, 2008, 5 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Please tell me what you think
Comments
1 - 22 of 22
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This is beautiful! I love the Native American intonation and the imagery is wonderful.
Love,
Amera♥
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Has such a nice feel to this in swaying sweet grass, its fragrance. I like how the delft was scavenged from the hearth. Gentle piece on this sewing set.
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ah, this is actually fragrant! I love it - my mother is going to love it, too! I love the homey feel and since I enjoy sewing, I can really relate to this sweet piece. Thank you.
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Thank you ea, I hope she enjoys
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When I get back from vacation, I want to read this! 
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Oh, this is a cool chatelaine, I am looking forward to the story behind this one. It is absolutely beautiful.
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This is such a cool pine needle basket and chatelaine. The center tiled pieces almost look like Scrimshaw. I would have to guess a sewing kit. This really is quite unique.
I love it. ~Pamela 
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This is lovely, and I am introduced to sweetgrass work for the first time, although I recognise the Dutch Delft tile inserts. This must be a sewing chatelaine - I think I can see the thimble case, the scissors holder, the pin holder. and what may be a tape measure. The blue tongue-like item has me wondering - is it perhaps something that flattened new seams? I'll have to think about it further...
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Thanks for stopping by, I have a theory on the blue thing, not sure I am supposed to disclose that yet or not
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I think Marlene may have guessed - is she correct?
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no I don't think she's correct on the blue thing
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When I looked up the chatelaine image above, it referred to as having an emery, could that be the blue thing?
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No, I don't think it's an emery
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Ah! The suspense!
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Ah! It must be, I suppose. Why would an emery be part of a sewing kit, though?
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You are so clever - and what beautiful objects the bodkins are!
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I just use a safety pin, I never knew there was something designed to do that. (e.g. when I run elastic through a waistband channel).
Somehow seeing all those items there on the page makes them seem like ritual objects rather than those with connotations I usually have for sewing items - as women's work and other words and chores that denigrate women... as unfit for little else.
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wow, I never knew what a bodkin was used for. I thought they were some kind of knife!
By the way, hoodoo, my grandmother's baskets were made with pine needles and looked like these. That round one has pins sticking out of it, like a pin wheel. -
Absolutely - ritual objects, used in acts of veneration - so much more than utilitarian. My grandmother, great grandmother and great-great-grandmother were seamstresses of reknown, and my mother made all the clothes for her six children until we were old enough to earn pocket money from little jobs, and buy from stores - how we longed for those labels in the backs of items - now, I am so ashamed of my attitude then! Ican sew, of course, but it's not the joy to me that it was to them.
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ah, thanks for the link to the larger pictures. Yes, I agree that adding the Dutch scenes is an eccentric touch - it makes me wonder about the colonists and the Indians mixing. My grandmother on my mother's side used to make these types of sweetgrass baskets, often with beadwork in the tops. She only made miniatures - they are adorable.
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Bonjour and welcome to my parlor! You have chosen the Indian sweetgrass chatelaine in the article that inspired this contest, with its lovely delft tile inserts. I can't tell what any of these are just by looking - is this one of the sewing chatelaines? Seems like there is a thimble on the right and maybe a scissors case in the middle and a pin cushion on the left?
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