Cher:Famous Needlepointer
Everyone remembers the hair, the hats, the gowns that made an entrance before she did. Six decades of Grammys, an Oscar, one half of the most famous duo in television history. What most people never knew is that in the middle of all of it, on airplanes, backstage, between takes, Cher was quietly needlepointing her way through the spotlight.
She once joked she'd needlepointed so much she could have made a needlepoint stove. Because that’s how much she needlepointed in the 1970s while married to Sonny Bono. She said it was a stress reliever.
Stitched ON PLANES
The photos say it plainly. Headscarf tied, hair falling forward, needle moving, completely unbothered by the camera or the crowd or the decade she happened to be defining. This wasn't a hobby she picked up for a photo. She stitched on planes mid tour, in hotel rooms, in the in-between minutes a life like hers rarely had.
The Needlepoint Stove
She said it herself: "Then I took up needlepoint — my god, I needlepointed everything. I could have made a needlepoint stove!" It's the kind of line that only lands if it's true, and every stitcher who has ever needlepointed a coaster, a belt, and a Christmas stocking in the same calendar year knows exactly what she meant.
Cher on The Rosie O’Donnell Show 1995
Sanctuary: Home Line
The habit outlasted the decade that made her famous. By 1995, sitting across from Rosie O'Donnell, she was talking about Sanctuary, her own home decor collection, needlepoint kits included. Not a passing mention of something she used to do. A whole product line, built around something she'd never actually stopped doing.
A Pillow of Her
Somewhere along the way, the tribute went the other direction. A needlepoint pillow of Cher on the cover of TIME magazine, dressed head to toe in Bob Mackie, ended up in Mackie's own collection. It later sold at auction, proof that even the people closest to her understood the moment was worth stitching down, needle by needle, for someone else to keep.
One of Us
Three Grammys. An Oscar. Six decades of being impossible to look away from. And in the middle of it, a canvas in her lap on a red-eye flight, same as the rest of us.
Cher was a needlepointer. She needlepointed everything. One of us.
Sources: Cher Scholar (cherscholar.com); The Rosie O'Donnell Show, 1995; Julien's Auctions