- Skill level: Easy beginner
- Stitch count: 140W x 90H
- Try Glow in the Dark floss!
- Maybe a little darker something for Halloween?
What is “Memento Mori”?
“Memento Mori” is a Latin phrase that translates into something like “remember that you die” (cheery, eh?). In embroidery, “memento mori” signifies the “mourning work” pieces stitched in 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. Done by newly widowed women as memorials to their lately deceased husbands, Memento Mori works could be incredibly complex and beautiful tributes to the end of a long-term life partnership.
Of course, they could also be subtle protests at a lifetime of unpaid servitude to a man’s ego and ambition, too. In fact, I view these darker, more satiric works as evidence of some of the earliest “subversive stitching” we have. Some of them could serve as models for designers today, for in their roasting of a dead pig of a husband they certainly set the bar for artistry in a back-handed compliment!
To learn more about memento mori, this Wikipedia article is a good place to start. Although, this article doesn’t specifically mention stitchery, so if the subject really interests you? Roszika Parker covered needlework memento mori fairly well in her book, The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine.
A Grimalkin’s Perspective
I was caught up in menopause and undiagnosed depression when I designed this. And, I got a little obsessed with my own mortality, I’ll admit. By the time I was choosing a font for the design I was already coming out of that deep-stage funk, and remembering how to laugh again.
I used whimsical lettering for the legend to remind myself not to take myself or my thoughts too seriously. As such, I’d definitely recommend it as a stitch if you’re going through a funk, too.
I’d also recommend Memento Mori to our noir-loving stitchy-kin who appreciate some figurative black velvet and absinthe in their samplers!
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