A Stitch in Time

In search of respite in a world increasingly ruled by screens, author Grace Helena Walz returns to a low-tech childhood hobby.

- Grace Helena Walz is the author of Good Hair Days and the forthcoming Pretty as a Peach.

I don’t come from a family that hands down expensive heirlooms. No Chippendale furniture, gilt-framed watercolors, or fancy china sets await me or either of my siblings. But I do come from a family whose currency is time and attention.

I can’t recall exactly how old I was when my mother first pressed the rough cross-stitch Aida fabric into my small hands, but I do remember—vividly—that my older sister, Alice, had already mastered the craft. Whether it was out of true curiosity or competitive spirit, I paid rapt attention as my mother showed me how to thread a needle, stitch a cross, and line them up, one after another, to make a picture. It was a challenge and a wonder wound into one.