Jeanette Stickel

Mama's Needle Jeanette Stickel

A young boy tells of his Mama's needle and her spool of long white thread. She uses it to patch holes in the knees of his pants, bind scraps of cloth into quilts and stitch dreams into reality. When he has a magical dream of her needle and thread, mama stitches a quilt together for remembering, and on it, are patches of his dreams. Wearing his quilt as a cape, he flies with his imagination.


The narrator of this engaging story is a young African American child. One night, he dreams of his Mama's needle and her spool of long white thread, flying through the air with its white tail of thread floating along behind, like it's riding a wave. The needle catches a bird flying by but doesn't hurt it. It spears some leaves shivering in a tree, and rays from the sun. It even snatches the tail of the wind and wrestles it onto the thread. His mama laughs when she hears about the dream but she stitches the images onto a quilt. "Her long shiny needle stitched those pieces together for remembering. Mama says I should go ahead and fly with my dreams."


And he does, taking his quilt with him. It becomes a cape as he rides a dog sled up a snow-covered mountain; a parachute, a saddle-blanket on a camel, a tent, a sail on a sail-boat and finally, a flying carpet.