Erica Wilson: The Julia Child of Needlework

Erica Moira Susan Wilson (1928-2011) has been called the “Julia Child of Needlework,” and her impact on the field of sewing and craft-related television has arguably been as great as that of Julia Child on the TV cooking program genre.1 Like Child, who made archaic aspects of French cookery accessible to a popular audience, Wilson revived and modernized old-fashioned needlework techniques with boundless enthusiasm. In Wilson’s obituary in The Guardian, Veronica Horwell wrote, “Wilson shared some of Child's enthusiastic style and all of her ambition to demystify and democratize what had become arcane skills.”2, 3 This essay explores Erica Wilson’s work and her tremendous impacts both on needlework and on public television, as evidenced through the lens of Erica, a program produced by GBH in 1971-72 and 1975-76 and broadcast on PBS stations nationally.

Erica Wilson was born in Wiltshire, England, and raised in England, Scotland, and Bermuda. She graduated from the Royal School of Needlework 4 in London, a school that had a tremendous impact on American needlework in the 1870s when works by its faculty were exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. Their embroidery work done in red thread gave rise to a Redwork5 craze among needle artists in the United States. Wilson emigrated from the United Kingdom in 1954 and quickly began giving needlework courses in New York City at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. She was featured in print media, and her 1962 book Crewel Embroidery made her a household name as “America’s First Lady of Stitchery.”6 Wilson eventually hosted a needlework program, Erica, produced by GBH beginning in 1971. Through not only her popular TV programs (which were also broadcast in the United Kingdom by the BBC and in Australia),7 but also her needlework design, her books, correspondence courses, and stores in New York City and Nantucket,8 Erica Wilson helped to revive several needlework traditions which had gone out of style, such as bargello,9 crewel work,10 and turkey work.11

Wilson’s approach to the needle and fabric arts was simultaneously rooted in the past and strikingly modern. At the beginning of most episodes of Erica, Wilson discussed museum pieces, often from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, or the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, which she herself had used for inspiration. Wilson appreciated the beauty and quality of work in these museum pieces, but also urged viewers to find the humor in them as well. She delighted in reading out cheeky messages in needlework samplers, such as “This was done by Mary Pitt, who hated every stitch of it” (episode #120, “Sentiments in Stitches”).

While she usually took her historical inspiration from 17th, 18th, or 19th century American or British textiles (she was particularly fond of the Jacobean and Victorian periods), Wilson also introduced viewers to textile traditions from a variety of non-Western cultures,12 including shisha13 work from India and Pakistan (episode #117, “Shisha Work”) and couched work with gold thread from China (episode #121, “Oriental Gold”). She also delighted in historic textiles made through cross-cultural exchange. In the first episode of Erica (episode #101, “Ticking Sampler14”), for example, Wilson took inspiration from a cross-stitch sampler done by students of a British missionary in South Africa.

Though she frequently looked to the past for inspiration, most of the projects that she demonstrated on Erica were quite contemporary. Her projects generally utilized the color palette fashionable in the clothing and interior design of the 1970s—bright oranges, acid yellows, and pea greens—as well as popular motifs of the decade, such as owls and mushrooms. Of an owl in embroidery that she executed in episode #114, “Thinking Bigger,” Wilson noted, “I simply adore owls. She might be a female, so I called her ‘Belinda.’” Her usage of large scale designs in heavy rug wool and new, synthetic crafting materials such as plastic canvas (episode #106, “Space Age Canvas”) and Lurex15 (“Oriental Gold”) also marked a conscious departure from the textiles of the past.

The needlework revival led by Wilson parallels the “Quilt Revival”16 that so dominated American sewing and crafts in the 1970s. Women (and men) in the '70s, a decade marked by the colonial nostalgia of the Bicentennial, looked to figures like Erica Wilson to learn traditional techniques long lost to the average American. Season One of Erica (1971-2) instructed viewers in several needlework techniques common in both the United States and America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with episodes such as #101 “Ticking Sampler,” #104 “Bargello,” #107 “Turkey Work,” and #116 “Crewel Point.” In Season Two (1975-6), Wilson branched out to quiltmaking techniques, with episodes on patchwork17 (episode #201) and appliqué18 (episode #215), staking her claim as part of the Quilt Revival. The antique quilt turning that she does in episode #201 is really quite spectacular, as is a quilt made of appliquéd velvet on silk made in Belfast, Maine in 1840 that she showcases in episode #215. While she did not devote a whole episode to it, Wilson also investigated whitework in the second season, displaying a white on white Federal eagle quilt from the early nineteenth century and reflecting, “Well I think whitework19 is one of my favorite things. It’s so beautifully frosty (episode #213, “Creatures Great and Small”).” Wilson also explores “quiltpoint”20in Season Two (episode #209, “New Points in Needlepoint”), designing a Lone Star21pattern in needlepoint.22

Further evidence of Wilson’s interest in the American Bicentennial, in spite of (or perhaps because of) her status a British expatriate, was the use of colonial American imagery in projects demonstrated on Erica. The most salient of these images is a needlepoint picture done for episode #213, “Creatures Great and Small” (1976) depicting the Beatrix Potter character, Mrs. Tittlemouse,23 in the guise of Betsy Ross, sewing the American flag. One might well read this picture, with its juxtaposition of the colonial and the Edwardian, the American and the British pasts, as a sort of self-portrait of Wilson herself. Wilson seems to be using, here, the figure of Mrs. Tittlemouse to navigate her British roots and newfound role as one of the pre-eminent figures in American needlework.

Animals were dear to Wilson, and she devoted episode #213, “Creatures Great and Small,”24 to depicting animals in needlework, from (predictably) Beatrix Potter characters to big cats captured in wildlife photography. Virginia Vis, now Curatorial Assistant at the Daughters of the American Revolution Museum, Washington, D.C., remembers watching Erica in college.25 Vis created a hand-dyed, free embroidery wall hanging of various critters after watching “Creatures Great and Small” in 1976. This episode, interestingly, is perhaps the only episode of Erica in which Wilson could be described as having made a (albeit vague) political statement. She noted, “We’re all very concerned nowadays about the natural environment, and how crowded it’s getting.”

Wilson returned to the influences of her British childhood, and particularly her love of Beatrix Potter, throughout the series. Wilson executed several needlepoints and stuffed dolls of Beatrix Potter characters—Hunca Munca,26Peter Rabbit, Johnny Townmouse, and Squirrel Nutkin among them—in the course of the series. Ultimately, however, Wilson seemed very much to embrace her status as a British expatriate who had made a home and an identity for herself in New England. She frequently referred to the American past as “our past” on Erica, for example in episode #201, “Patchwork,” Wilson described quilt patterns such as Robbing Peter to Pay Paul, Sunshine and Shadow, and Trip Around the World as “old patterns from our American ancestors.”

While Wilson’s legacy in the fields of needlework, sewing, and quilting is immense, so too is her legacy in the realm of public television. Wilson was clearly aware early on the potential of public television and of her role in shaping the future of the fledgling Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), which was founded by Hartford N. Gunn Jr. of GBH as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in October of 1970, less than a year before Erica first aired. In a 1971 episode of Erica on textual graphics and monograms in needlework (#105), for example, Wilson began by referencing Sesame Street (which premiered in 1969), announcing, “Today’s program is presented by the letters ‘E’ and ‘W’.”

Erica was truly a pioneering program, providing a model format that countless other craft shows would follow, notably Emma Amos and Beth Gutcheon’s 1977-79 program, Show of Hands, which was also produced by GBH and featured many of the same production crew as Erica. Today, PBS devotes an entire channel, Create TV, to cooking, arts & crafts, gardening, home improvement, and travel programming. The craft program format pioneered by Erica Wilson and GBH on PBS was so popular, of course, that commercial television, such as the Home & Garden Television network (HGTV), later adopted the genre.

Part of what made the Erica format such great television was Wilson’s mastery of stitchery, which allowed her to create projects, seemingly on the fly, for the camera. One of the cornerstones of the program was her instructional demonstration of various stitches, both common stitches such as backstitch, cross-stitch, satin stitch, and tent stitch, and more advanced stitches such as Burden stitch27 and Gobelin stitch.28 Her needlework prowess was so immense that the show could have been off-putting, but her enthusiasm and encouragement made the show eminently watchable, even for those with the most rudimentary (or completely absent) needlework skills. In episode #112, “Geometric Needlepoint,” for example, Wilson encouraged viewers to be bold, “I’ve selected pretty strong colors. You can be a lot bolder than you think,” while reassuring viewers that, “Designing needlepoint is the easiest thing in the world.” Often, it was not what Erica Wilson said, but how she said it, that made the Erica show so accessible. On the subject of bargello, Erica noted that, “It’s like eating peanuts. You can’t stop once you begin. (#104),” and when speaking of choosing fabrics for a patchwork quilt, Erica used a similarly alimentary simile, “The first thing you have to do, of course, is choose the fabrics, and that’s really just like eating candies (#201).”

Humor is another quality, now crucial to craft and how-to programs, which Wilson pioneered in Erica. Ever so discreetly comparing needlework to sex, she saucily quipped, “You can do it in the car, in bed, even in the bath, if you like (#124, “Needle Painting”).” Wilson also presented a very humble persona on Erica. She could readily laugh at her own chief shortcoming as an embroideress, namely, the very untidy quality of the reverse sides of her work. “Turning to the wrong side of the embroidery… it’s a terrible sin. It’s a waste of time, you see (#114),” she said. “You’re not supposed to turn the frame to the wrong side, because that’s terribly unprofessional (#115).” All of this is not to say that, however, that Wilson and GBH perfected the television craft program format from the pilot episode of Erica. Especially in the first few episodes of the first season of Erica, the series is checkered with what are, by twenty-first century viewing standards, some quaint, even downright naïve, production choices—such as an awkwardly loud gong to signal the end of the episode and to signal Wilson to utter her catch phrase in a harried manner, “Too many stitches, too little time,” as well as the frequent scene of Wilson whizzing past a window in the set as the credits rolled.

Related to the quaint naïveté of the show, one major element of the Erica show that largely was not adopted by television presenters who followed her footsteps was costume. Wilson sometimes wore normal street clothes when presenting Erica, but equally often, she appeared in a fanciful costume that echoed the theme of the episode. In episode #211, “Native American Treasures,” for example, Wilson wore buckskin pants decorated with Tlingit totems.29 While she often used the element of costume to showcase the dress of non-Western cultures, she sometimes wore family heirlooms as costume pieces as well. In episode #110, “Satin Stitch,” Wilson wore her great-grandmother’s skirt, which she stated came from the Paris Exhibition of 185130 and was decorated with padded satin stitch in silks and cottons. She sheepishly noted that while her great-grandmother had had an 18-inch waist (due to the use of a corset), Wilson had had to let out the garment considerably in order to be able to wear it. In another instance (episode #209, “New Points in Needlepoint”), Wilson donned a kilt for a discussion of how to imitate Scottish plaid in needlepoint, but noted that she was not wearing her own family’s tartan “because it was much too plain.”

Family was a recurring theme on Erica, and Wilson frequented mentioned making projects for or with her husband, furniture designer Vladimir Kagan, and their three children, daughters Vanessa and Jessica, and son Ilya. In episode #120, “Sentiments in Stitches,” for example, Wilson showed pillows on the theme of “Love,” a modern version that her husband had designed and her daughter’s Victorian version, noting that, “Love is acceptable at any time of the year.” The mention of family has become an important aspect of how-to programs, making the host seem more down-to-earth and relatable to the average viewer. Today, programs from P. Allen Smith’s Garden Home to Lydia’s Italy frequently use mention of the presenter’s family.

While family has become a mainstay of the genre, the role of the domestic wife and mother is much more accentuated in Erica than in more contemporary programs. Wilson generally, despite her use of her maiden name rather than her married name, reinforces the prevailing gender roles of the period, presenting herself as the ideal wife and mother in the series. At the conclusion of several episodes in Season One, for example, Wilson noted that she had to leave “to put dinner in the oven.” This is in stark contrast to Amos and Gutcheon’s Show of Hands series on GBH in the late 1970s, which had a decidedly feminist feel.

One could argue, however, that for Wilson, crafting and cooking were both a reflection of a woman’s domestic autonomy, rather than of her subjugation, and that cookery and the kitchen were but another source of inspiration for the needle art. In episode #115, “Designs from China,” Wilson discussed using designs from decorated porcelain, such as the Willow pattern, blue and white Delftware, and an eighteenth century Worcester plate decorated with mushrooms (one of her favorite motifs), as sources of inspiration for embroidery. At the end of that episode, Wilson proudly states, “So next time you go to the kitchen, I expect you’ll be stitching instead of cooking.” Ultimately, Erica Wilson claimed the kitchen, Julia Child’s realm, as a space not for cookery, but for needlework.

Unlike the much more renowned Julia Child, Erica Wilson’s contribution and legacy have been neglected for far too long. Wilson’s program, Erica, produced by GBH Boston, led to a Renaissance of the needle arts in America, and provided a model for future television craft programs to follow. It is my hope that this essay, and the accompanying collection of episodes of Erica and later quiltmaking and needlework programs from GBH, inspires scholars representing a variety of disciplines—from textile studies to history to media studies—to further the study of Wilson’s legacy in stitches and on television.

The Quilt Index

A free, open access project of Matrix, Michigan State University Museum, and the Quilt Alliance. [The Quilt Index is a searchable repository of digital photographs, texts (oral, video, and written), and documents pertaining to quilts, quiltmakers, and quilt-related activities. As of January 2013, it contains more than 50,000 digital representations of quilts from museums, libraries, archives, research projects, and private individuals from around the world.

Hmong Embroidery

In his 90 Seconds with… episode, Chang Xiong discusses his embroidery based in the tradition of the Hmong people of Vietnam.

Inspiration from Children’s Literature

Erica Wilson frequently used illustrations and characters from children’s literature, especially the works of Beatrix Potter, as inspiration for needlework designs. Additionally, in her episode of 90 Seconds with…, quiltmaker Ann Brauer discussed how stories such as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland have inspired her quilts. All of these quilts were inspired by classics of children’s literature

Animal Motifs

Erica Wilson was very fond of animals and devoted Erica episode “Creatures Great and Small” to depictions of animals in needlework. All of these quilts feature animals, mostly in appliqué designs.

English Template Piecing

Erica Wilson demonstrates a paper piecing method for making even patchwork in the “Patchwork” episode of Erica. All of these quilts on the Quilt Index used paper piecing, often called “English template piecing” in the United States, in their construction.

Quilt Patterns

In the “Patchwork,” episode of the Erica show, Erica Wilson showed many different traditional quilt patterns, such Carolina Lily, crazy quilts, Dresden Plate, Drunkard’s Path, Hexagon Mosaic, Log Cabin, and Trip Around the World. All of these patterns and many more are illustrated here

Quilts and Human Rights

Much of Chang Xiong’s work deals with the refugee experience and the Vietnam War. For more quilts depicting human rights issues, see Mary Worrall, Marsha MacDowell, and Lynee Swanson’s exhibit, Quilts and Human Rights.

“AHSA Talks with Erica Wilson,” Forecast for Home Economics (Special Issue) 30, September 1984, 57.

Baehr, Helen, and Gillian Dyer. Boxed In: Women and Television. Pandora Press, 1987.

Brackman, Barbara. Patterns of Progress: Quilts in the Machine Age. Los Angeles: Autry Museum of Western Heritage, 1997.

Bryan-Wilson, Julia. "Eleven Propositions in Response to the Question: What Is Contemporary about Craft?." The Journal of Modern Craft 6, no. 1 (2013): 7-10.

Brown, Mary Ellen, ed. Television and Women's Culture: The Politics of the Popular. SAGE Publications Limited, 1990.

Cassidy, Marsha Francis. What Women Watched: Daytime Television in the 1950s. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005.

Colby, Averill. Patchwork. London: Batsford, 1958.

“Crewel Awakening.” Newsweek 59, 11 June 1962, 96.

“Erica Wilson Dies at 83 – Led a Rebirth of Needleworking.” New York Times. 13 December 2011.

Ferris, Monica. Crewel World. Berkley, 1999.

Finley, Ruth and Ruby McKim. Old Patchwork Quilts and the Women Who Made Them. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1929.

Gordon, Beverly. "The Fiber of Our Lives: Trends and attitudes about women's textile art as reflected in the literature in America 1876–1976." The Journal of Popular Culture 10, no. 3 (1976): 548-559.

“Great Embroidery Ideas by Erica Wilson.” House and Garden 144, December 1973, 56- 57.

Hall, Carrie A. and Rose G. Kretsinger. The Romance of the Patchwork Quilt. New York: Dover Publications, 1988.

Hedges, Elaine. Hearts and Hands: The Influence of Women & Quilts on American Society. San Francisco: Quilt Digest Press, 1987.

Horwell, Veronica. “Erica Wilson obituary.” The Guardian. 2 January 2012.

Lauria, Jo, and Steve Fenton. Craft in America: Celebrating Two Centuries of Artists and Objects. Clarkson Potter, 2007.

Leslie, Catherine. Identity, Consumption, and Frequency of Behavior among Contemporary Needleworkers. Unpublished doctoral dissertation: Ohio State University, 2002.

”Look Who’s Needling Now!,” Saturday Evening Post 246. November 1974, 48-49.

MacDowell, Marsha and Kurt Dewhurst. To Honor and Comfort: Native Quilting Traditions. Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 1997.

“Mail Order Mecca for Needleworkers: Nantucket.” House and Garden 132, October 1967, 89-90.

“Needlepoint Boom.” New York Times Magazine. 11 June 1972, 56-59.

Nelson, Valerie J. “Erica Wilson, ‘America’s first lady of stitchery,’ dies at 83.” The Washington Post. 19 December 2011.

“An Old Stitch Hits the Big Time.” Life 54. 15 March 1963, 49-50.

“On and Off the Avenue: Erica Wilson’s Needlework Classes.” New Yorker 37, 18 February 1961, 100 -101.

“One Stitch Leads to Another: Crewelwork.” New York Times Magazine, 1 March 1970, 66-67.

Orlofsky, Patsy, and Myron Orlofsky. Quilts in America. New York: McGraw Hill, 1974. Reprint, New York: Abbeville Press, 1992.

Safford, Carleton L. and Robert Bishop. America’s Quilts and Coverlets. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1972.

Shaughnessy, Katherine. The New Crewel: Exquisite Designs in Contemporary Embroidery. Lark Books, 2005.

Shaw, Robert. Quilts: A Living Tradition. Hugh Lauter Levin. 1995.

Spigel, Lynn, and Denise Mann. Private Screenings: Television and the Female Consumer. University of Minnesota Press, 1992.

Webster, Marie. Quilts: Their Story and How To Make Them. New York: Tudor Publishing Co., 1915.

Williams, Raymond. Television, Technology and Cultural Form. New York: Schocken Books, 1974.

Wilson, Erica. The Animal Kingdom. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1978.

Wilson, Erica. Ask Erica. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1977.

Wilson, Erica. Children’s World. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1983.

Wilson, Erica. Christmas World. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1980.

Wilson, Erica. Crewel Embroidery. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1962.

Wilson, Erica. Erica. Television Series. GBH Boston. 1971-2 and 1975-6.

Wilson, Erica. Erica Wilson’s Embroidery Book. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1973.

Wilson, Erica. Erica Wilson’s Needlepoint: Based on the Collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: Abrams, 1995.

Wilson, Erica. Erica Wilson's Quilts of America. New York: Oxmoor House, 1979.

Wilson, Erica. “Everyone is Doing Crewel,” House and Garden 123, January 1963, 96 - 99.

Wilson, Erica. Fun With Crewel Embroidery. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1965.

Wilson, Erica. More Needleplay. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1979.

Wilson, Erica. Needleplay. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1975.

Wilson, Erica. Erica Wilson’s Needlework to Wear. New York: Oxmoor, 1982.

Wilson, Erica. New World of Plastic Canvas. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1978.

Wilson, Erica. Say It with Stitches. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1978.

Wilson, Erica. “Needlepoint.” Four-part Video Series.

Adviser Consulted During the Creation of this Collection: Marsha MacDowell, Ph.D.

Dr. MacDowell is Curator, Michigan State University Museum, and Professor, Department of Art, Art History, and Design, Michigan State University. Her research foci includes traditional material culture (especially quilts), folk arts and education, and museum theory and practice.