Stitches in Time

Stitches in Time is a novel by the American writer Barbara Michaels, published in 1995. It mixes a supernatural story with the ordinary troubles of a young woman rebuilding her life, and much of it concerns textiles and the domestic magic attached to them.

Rachel is intelligent, competent and short of money, and her circumstances are complicated. She is estranged from her family, has just seen off a boyfriend who was manipulative and verbally abusive, has a dissertation to finish, and has an attraction to her new patroness's husband that she would prefer nobody to know about.

The subject of her research is the superstition and magic that women have traditionally stitched into their work, and the vintage clothing business she has been helping in provides her with examples: a set of antique quilts, one of which is unlike anything she has seen. What she realises too late is that the quilt did not come alone, that what came with it is already acting on the people around her, and that her own research is about to become the least theoretical thing in her life.