Creating a Touch of Happiness

embroidered coin purses

Happy New Year! The words are on everyone’s lips this week. But the reality of finding and keeping a sense of happiness through the darkest time of the year in northern climates can be a real emotional challenge. Humans have faced the same struggle for ages. I’m certain this is why, the world over, people have found ways to bring summer inside in winter.

Frescoes, murals, and mosaics brought vines, leaves, flowers, and trees into interiors. Florists understand our desire for color and blooming beauty all year round. Wearing colorful clothing was widely traditional in pre-industrial Europe, decorated with meaningful motifs. Since ancient times, embroidery has been part of this tradition. I still have family tea towels, table runners, and pillowcases embroidered by great-grandmothers to bring color and floral happiness into the home. Despite the trials of the Great Depression, these women continued to create small expressions of beauty.

This week, I was designing a new class project inspired by the embroidery motifs in Nordlund bunad, a type of Norwegian folk dress. The bodice and purse are studded with curving stems sprouting leaves and flowers. They dance across the wool fabric, making me smile just to look at them—spring and summer captured on cloth, unfading and vibrant. The project for the class is to make a small coin purse, which could accompany such an outfit or be enjoyable for anyone who finds happiness in a spritely, floral design.

The stitches worked up quickly, the needle scooping into the upcycled wool fabric that was once a dress or a coat, drawing the wool yarn from our sheep behind. I worked with a variegated skein, choosing different sections of the thread to utilize the colors desired—green for stems and leaves, purples for the blooms. The quiet, repetitive nature of the stitches was calming and meditative, excitement building as each new part of the design came into being. As the hours passed, simple drawn lines transformed into vibrant color, texture, and shade.

embroidery in progress

As I finished assembling the little purse, I had to smile. Just holding it brought happiness, knowing I had started from my own hand-drawn design sketches, all the way through every interpretive stitch. The blue wool fabric on its own could have been perfectly serviceable as a coin purse. The embroidery was not needed for it to function. But the stitches were certainly needed for their touch of happiness, brightening the enjoyment of this simple but adorable piece.

Such practices help us through the long, dreary, gray season of winter. Or it might be knitting with bright colors that make you smile or keeping up your holiday decorations longer because the lights and ribbons bring you joy.

This week, find ways to bring summer inside for a touch of happiness. Keep on creating!