Sewing With Nancy

We all want to leave a legacy. Today's Nancy's Corner guest chose an independent project, which he dedicated to the preservation and the memories of Mexican indigenous textiles. Please welcome Bob Freund who joins us via Skype today from Santa Rosa, California. Welcome, Bob. Hi, Nancy. Thanks so much for having me on. It's a real honor. It's our pleasure. You're a historian, and you've chosen your life's work to gather textiles from Mexico. Explain to our viewers why you did this. Well, in 2000, I began documenting my large collection of textiles village by village, and as I went to these villages, I realized that the grandmothers were the ones that were wearing the costume and the granddaughters were in Nike T-shirts and jeans and sneakers. Sure. They didn't want anything to do with it. And so it was going to go by the wayside. So I decided that it was time to do an intensive study of this. I've done 750 villages, at least. And we have several to share with our viewers. First, from the ethnic group of the Mazateca. Brilliant colors, great running stitches, great hand stitches and explain this beautiful gown. Okay, that is called a huipil. It's a traditional garment that's, basically, hand-embroidered, originally hand-woven material. It's got cross-stitching and running stitch, depending on the taste of the embroiderer, and then they apply, across the chest and the bottom of the huipil, a series of ribbons which identify the regional-- or the town that they come from. Additionally, you don't see it there, but there's also a wrap skirt that goes underneath it. A red and white striped wrap skirt that's also hand-woven. Weaving, hand stitching, applique we're going to see it all. And this next image shows a beautiful coverlet, as well as shawl using the same stitching. Right. That's from the town of Hueyapan, Puebla. It's a Nahua Indian group, and they have a very traditional society there. They've become quite good at doing coverlets like that. And that's a cross-stitch. That one there is particularly cross-stitch. That's one of the larger types. They basically work on shawls for the most part, or what they call rebozos, which are done with a chain-stitch or a cross-stitch on wool, which is either hand spun or bought and woven on back strap looms or treadle looms. This is a project that takes, I would say, years to create something this large. I've been working on it for 15 years. But even the women, to create the garments. My, amazing. Amazing. In Santa Teresa, there's a festival. These women are attending the festival in their native gowns. They're the wives of the mayordomos or the leaders of the festival. Part of the responsibility is that they feed everybody in the village. Those buckets are full of food that they're giving. The garment itself is applique. The designer, the person that wants to have the piece made, basically picks out the material and then they cut it out and they give it to a seamstress who applies it. And it also has designs placed on there in a linear fashion by a treadle machines because there's no electricity in those regions. Sure. You've collected a great number, and you've donated the collection. Explain how others can appreciate and sometime hopefully see your collection. Right now it's in the process of going to the Middle American Research Institute at Tulane University, which they will-- anybody that walks in there can go see it. They have an enormous collection of textiles from Middle or what's called Mesoamerica. It's Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica. Mexico and Guatemala primarily. Anybody that wants to see can go there and just say, "I want to see the collections." They can just them which one, and they'll pull it out and show it to you. They're desperate for people to come and study this stuff. That's what it's there for. It's to preserve it forever. Well, Bob, I thank you for doing this so we can all enjoy it in the future. Thanks for being on Sewing with Nancy. Thanks for having me. You're welcome. I know that you can't always watch Sewing with Nancy at this time, and that's why my show is available on demand at

www.NancyZieman.com

. You can also sign up to receive sewing and quilting updates on my blog and other social media platforms. Thanks for joining us. Bye for now.