QUILT HISTORY STORIES
ELGIN, ILLINOIS
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
LeeWard Mills and Lee Wards Story
Book 7
Susan Wildemuth, Atkinson, IL
History of LeeWard Mills and LeeWards
General Mills Years (1969 –1985)
Exhibition Badges
Note the LeeWards Trademark at the Top of Badge
Authors Collection
China Needlepoint Exhibition
Former President Richard and Pat Nixon took their historic visit to China in the early 1970s and our cool relationship with the Peoples Republic of China began to warm.
As early as 1976, “bits and pieces of the culture of mainland China” filtered into the United States from the east. (96) On January 28, 1976, an exhibition of tapestries from the Peoples Republic of China entitled “China in Needlepoint” opened at the Explorer’s Hall, The National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C. (97)
These works of art depicting landscapes of China “were brought to the United States by LeeWards Creative Crafts, a division of General Mills, Inc.” (98) This exhibition was an example of what Byr Setsman meant when she said “embroidery is like painting with a needle.” (99) “Photographs in thread,” these unique tapestries are realistic snapshots of Chinese scenery and history done by expert artisans.
According to a 1976 Courier News article, all the tapestries were done “in minute detail using as many as 40 different needlepoint stitches.” (100) Some had the appearance of crewel embroidery stitches over needlepoint and dyed wool yarn was used. “Single strands were mixed together and the worker would sometimes make only one or two stitches before switching color.” (101)
Chinese needlepoint was “no leisure-time pursuit, but a profession taught in the universities, marked by long apprenticeships and backed up by research institutes.” (102) Whole factories (or workshops) were devoted to this art. What is truly amazing about this process is “there were no patterns stamped on the canvas, the workers took a painting or photograph on which a grid of cross lines were drawn as a guide” and created these tapestries from that. (103)
There were also “four pieces of double-sided silk embroidery on translucent cloth, examples of a 2000 year old art that was almost lost and was being revived at the time of this exhibit. The pieces were stitched with a mirror held beneath the work to insure that both sides were identical. Some of the work was done with one strand of cocoon silk which is finer than human hair.”(104) Workers were only allowed to do this type of work for two hours a day for fear they would ruin their eyesight. (105)
The exhibit remained in Washington D.C. for about four months before making the move to the Chicago Public Library Cultural Center on April 8, 1976 for three weeks stay, giving Midwestern residents the opportunity to see these beautiful pieces of Chinese needle art. (106)
