Quilted Tapestries (SC'20)
Written by Mark Sexton, edited and formatted by Steve Tremblay
Life in Theria is a struggle. The celebration of birthdays and rites of passage vary between both the races, and the individual gods they worship.
While celebrations will always differ in opulence based on one’s station and social class, there are certain traditions that tie them together across Ellara.
For humans, the initial birth of a child is celebrated in the rural areas with the mother being visited by all of the mothers in the village. The ones that weren’t present for the birth itself busy themselves with the chores of the household, allowing the new mother to rest for the first week. They cook and clean, often with one or more bringing a bedroll to stay through the night for assistance if the father is away.
During that first week, each mother that has attended to the new mom will create a patchwork square of cloth and attach it to the work of the previous, creating a quilted blanket of myriad colors and patterns. While the individual skill of each square and style may vary, it serves as a visual reminder to the new mother that she is not alone.
If this is not the first child of the family, the squares will be added to the mother’s previous “Tapestry of Life” to enlarge it to fit the growing family. These blankets often start with a pattern of large squares, but as the blanket grows, the size of the squares often shrink and are filled with colorful needlepoint or hand embroidery depicting important memories of the family. This patchwork quilting remains an integral part of the birthday celebration as a new square is added each year on each child’s birthday. In this way it becomes a tapestry of the family’s history, with the young girl’s learning at an early age the important skills of sewing, embroidery, and darning. The boys rarely take as much interest in the creation of the tapestry, but look forward to each year’s reveal of their square as a hint of what their birthday gift will be.
The riddle of each year’s square is limited only by the creativity of the mother making it. Some have elaborate word problems, others are stitched with flowery prose, while simpler ones are simply a picture appliqued or embroidered onto the square. All of this conversation is not meant to leave the fathers out, though! The father’s role is very important as the primary income producer and often more most traveled of the parents. The Therian father is responsible for buying or making the single birthday gift for each child. While gifts need not always be “new” it is well thought out and often serves both a mundane need as well as fit the character of the child receiving it. Fathers are known to refurbish or customize a tool or small knife with care practice.
Sometimes a single gift makes it through several generations before finally being lost or too worn to repair. One of the signs of honor and respect paid back to father and mothers by their children is the presentation of the tapestry and the birthday gifts back to them as they near death, surrounding by their children.
For humans, the initial birth of a child is celebrated in the rural areas with the mother being visited by all of the mothers in the village. The ones that weren’t present for the birth itself busy themselves with the chores of the household, allowing the new mother to rest for the first week. They cook and clean, often with one or more bringing a bedroll to stay through the night for assistance if the father is away.
During that first week, each mother that has attended to the new mom will create a patchwork square of cloth and attach it to the work of the previous, creating a quilted blanket of myriad colors and patterns. While the individual skill of each square and style may vary, it serves as a visual reminder to the new mother that she is not alone.
If this is not the first child of the family, the squares will be added to the mother’s previous “Tapestry of Life” to enlarge it to fit the growing family. These blankets often start with a pattern of large squares, but as the blanket grows, the size of the squares often shrink and are filled with colorful needlepoint or hand embroidery depicting important memories of the family. This patchwork quilting remains an integral part of the birthday celebration as a new square is added each year on each child’s birthday. In this way it becomes a tapestry of the family’s history, with the young girl’s learning at an early age the important skills of sewing, embroidery, and darning. The boys rarely take as much interest in the creation of the tapestry, but look forward to each year’s reveal of their square as a hint of what their birthday gift will be.
The riddle of each year’s square is limited only by the creativity of the mother making it. Some have elaborate word problems, others are stitched with flowery prose, while simpler ones are simply a picture appliqued or embroidered onto the square. All of this conversation is not meant to leave the fathers out, though! The father’s role is very important as the primary income producer and often more most traveled of the parents. The Therian father is responsible for buying or making the single birthday gift for each child. While gifts need not always be “new” it is well thought out and often serves both a mundane need as well as fit the character of the child receiving it. Fathers are known to refurbish or customize a tool or small knife with care practice.
Sometimes a single gift makes it through several generations before finally being lost or too worn to repair. One of the signs of honor and respect paid back to father and mothers by their children is the presentation of the tapestry and the birthday gifts back to them as they near death, surrounding by their children.
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