Her needlework both plain and ornamental was excellent, and she might have put a sewing machine to shame. – James Edward Austen-Leigh, about Jane Austen

Woman has relied heretofore too entirely for her support on the needle – that one-eyed demon of destruction that slays thousands annually; that evil genius of our sex, which, in spite of all our devotion, will never make us healthy, wealthy, or wise. – Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Methinks it is a token of healthy and gentle characteristics, when women of high thoughts and accomplishments love to sew; especially as they are never more at home with their own hearts than while so occupied. – Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Marble Faun, 1859