Hmong Story Quilt

The very first tribe that we visited in Thailand was Hmong. It was a long and winding road up a mountain that gave us breathtaking views whenever we went around a curve. Spirit houses lined the edge of the road in several places. They were both beautiful and alarming at the same time as our guide explained that some of them were put in place to placate the spirits of those who had died traversing this road.

The village followed the line of the mountain upward and made it a challenge to walk up and down carrying the baby. The absolute best thing in the world was the small culture museum that was set up in one of the buildings. The 80 year old woman who normally would conduct tours of it was gone to visit relatives in Laos so one of her daughters showed us the main points.

It seemed as though they weren't expecting tourists but as soon as we had been there about 10 minutes women started arriving with huge bags of textiles to show and sell. This story cloth was embroidered by the lady who gave us the museum tour. What had drawn me to buying this particular one is the food theme! I just can't resist that. It also has such wonderful vignettes of traditional life.

Hmong story cloths are an art unto themselves, totally seperate from other Hmong textiles which feature geometric designs rather than pictorial. They are a modern artform, having been inspired by the pictures in textbooks and story books that have come with outside education. They are an incredible blending of tradition and modernization. Story quilts come in an array of themes from food preparation to courting and wedding traditions to life in refugee camps.

The stitches used for story quilts seem very limited at first glance. But there is a surprising variety including back stitch and stem stitch in a dazzling array of colors, bokhara couching is used in the walls of the houses which does a fantastic job of mimicing the bamboo construction of the Hmong houses. People, animals, flowers and tools are all comprised of satic stitch. The ground fabric is a thin cotton, perhaps a cotton blend. Traditional style clothing and adornment are delicately portrayed. Note the black jackets with blue sleeve cuffs which are everywhere in a Hmong village.

The border of triangular applique is commonly used in Hmong textiles, perhaps because it has a protective meaning. Sometimes called 'tiger's teeth' and other times 'mountains', the name does not seem to change the meaning: a protective enclosure to keep danger from intruding.