I’m fascinated by collections, and the people who collect them. At the textile Museum this week, I came across a collection of Victorian needlework amassed by a woman named Jane Webster from the mid to late-20th century. She lived in the Caribou Harbour area of Pictou, Nova Scotia. Webster had collected 130 pieces of needlework, each one stitched with a different motto: ‘God is Love,’ ‘Kind Words Never Die,’ ‘Remember the Creator.’ It was actually the photographs of Jane Webster and her family that I enjoyed most; Her standing on the porch with a big frying pan in her left hand, oven mitts on both, the children piled into the sun-room for summertime naps. The life and the love in the pictures seemed to mirror the mottos on her walls. “What is a home without a mother?” “Welcome all” “Token of Love” “Give us this day our daily bread.” It was a glimpse into another time, another place.
