“Some people paint with a brush. I paint with a needle,” Mrs Irené Edwards of Sandy Ground told The Anguillian, sweeping her right arm towards the walls exhibiting her stunning craftwork.
The place was the old St Gerard’s Roman Catholic Church at Wallblake, now a very useful community Conference Centre; and the date was Sunday, February 22, the grand opening of Mrs Edwards’ four-day exhibition of some two to three years of diligent work.
Long before 4 pm, craft lovers, and other spectators, had already begun arriving. But at that time the exhibitor, aided by family members and friends, was only mounting her exhibits. The delay was occasioned by earlier activities which overflowed from the nearby new church edifice to the centre.
The hall was taken up by a number of tables decorated with a quantity of craft items, and over twenty other framed pieces of work littered the walls – all neatly placed and commanding the attention of the onlookers.
“I am addicted to this work. It is like an addiction,” Mrs Edwards said about her love for handicraft. “From the time I was seven years old, my mother put a needle in my hand. So from that age I learnt to sew hems and buttons, and I just got a love for embroidery – and from then, to now, I am what I am: a lover of handicraft.”
Asked how she would describe herself, she replied: “I am somebody who paints with a needle. Some people paint with a brush. I paint with a needle.”
She spoke about the list of exhibits. “There are things to put on your tables like crochet doilies and runners, instead of tablecloths; decorative cushions for beds; hardanger patterns and black work embroidery,” she explained. “I am exhibiting until Thursday, February 26, at 5 pm.”
Mrs Edwards was asked what advice she had for persons who may have similar interest in handicraft: “I would like them to know that when they take up embroidery, crochet, or any type of handicraft, it relaxes you. It stabilises your blood pressure and I don’t suffer from blood pressure; and it keeps you from stress – from worrying about anything.”
