A stitch in time for Maria

20 Maria Hoste 1

Holy Name church in Warkworth has a new image of the Madonna and Child, one painstakingly handcrafted by parishioner Maria Hoste.

Parish priest Fr Brian Lange described the image as “a very fine skill and effort” by Mrs Hoste.

“[She made] also nearly all of our altar cloths and other sacred linens in use in our parish,” he said.

Moira Carley, another parishioner, brought the tapestry to NZ Catholic’s attention, saying “it is too beautiful . . . it needs to be shared
with others”.

Mrs Hoste was happy with, and a little baffled by, the compliments. She said she finished the entire work in six weeks.

“When it was finished, I said it was too big. I gave it to the church. That’s all,” she said, with a little laugh.

Having been through an operation on her back and leg, she said that crafting was about the only thing she can do nowadays.

“When I’m busy with it, I pray a lot. I pray my rosary. I do always,” she said.

Asked why she chose the image of the Blessed Mother and Child, she said, “Maria is my favourite. I always admire Maria, always.”

Mrs Hoste said she started crafting when she was sick and bedridden at age 12 in Europe. She said the Dominican sisters, who did a lot of embroidery, asked her to help them.

With the sisters, she made tapestries that hung over the “communion benches”.

During World War II, their house in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, was bombed.

“[My father] had to look for the surviving children when the house was bombed. After three days, he found us. Can you imagine that?”
she said.

Maria Hoste (left) and Moira Carley
with some of Maria’s craft.

It was a tough time, she recalled, and money was tight. Her father’s business was providing paper for the government.

“My father always said, ‘if you want something, you have to make it yourself or you have to take your money from what you earn and you can buy it’,” she said.

From the left-over cuts of paper that her father gave her, she made  little boxes, lamp shades and anything she could think of. She sold
these so she could buy what she needed.

She and her husband moved to New Zealand 26 years ago, to be closer to their daughters, who migrated here earlier.

In Te Aroha, she opened a shop. She also gifted the church there with a beaded tapestry of The Last Supper, and she embroidered altar
tablecloths.

Mrs Hoste’s home in Warkworth is a gallery of her life’s work, from a quilted bedcover to the curtains, a tapestry that hangs
on one wall, to the lampshade. Her hands are never idle.

“It’s a waste of time if you sit there waiting to die,” said Mrs Hoste, who is in her eighties.

“I couldn’t do that. I need to do something. And now I’m busy with a new thing,”  she said, in happy anticipation of her new
quilting project.

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Rowena Orejana

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Comments

  1. Frans Van der Linden says

    Nice article… Good to see my aunty is still going strong!
    Best regards
    Frans vd Linden, the Netherlands

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