Category: Sewing

If only in remembrances…

My grandmother’s Christmas cactus is pictured at the center of this Christmas tree skirt, which is now ready to be quilted and bound. I began working on it a few weeks ago using my beloved ‘memory stash’, consisting of cotton remnants from generations of garment sewing projects, which has been the inspiration of many of my scrappy play days since my mother’s death in May. The plan is for me to finish it in time for it to surround my Christmas tree in December. Once it is, each year my loved ones, some passed from this life into eternity, will gather again around my Christmas tree, if only in my remembrances….

Mug rugs and other thoughts

It wasn’t long ago that I found out that mug-rugs were all the rage – well, at least in the quilting world, where I sometimes live. These twelve mug-rugs, with weekly snail-mail letters and periodic phone chats, were my small monthly contributions to my mother’s life as she convalesced for a year in Maryland at the home of my dear sister. Making mug-rugs with birds on them seemed the perfect idea as Mom loved birds, but because the pattern is not an original, (sameliasmum.com) to make them as special as I could for her, I used fabric from her ‘stash’ whenever possible, highlighting each month with traditional colors or themed fabric, and sewing them on my sweet little Singer Featherweight sewing machine that Mom gifted me in the early 1970’s. Recently returned to me by my sister, this collection of mug-rugs now represents remembrances of long ago ‘downtown’ trips to Newberry’s in Saranac Lake for fabric (and turtles, but that’s another story), Simplicity patterns, sewing projects, the passion for sewing she passed on to me, and the patience she poured out at each sewing juncture and far-flung ‘creative’ foible. We would sometimes talk about these little birds on the phone, but it wasn’t the mug-rugs per se that took conversational precedence, it was the sewing memories…

Sweet Remnants of the Days…

My 98 YO mother passed on Mother’s Day. I’m still grieving.  As a tribute to her, I created these three little wall hangings from her fabric remnants, trims, and butterfly pins. The top one is mine- made from fabric Mom used to make me a peasant blouse in the early 1970’s. The red one, a gift for my older sister, features a small remnant of Mom’s kitchen curtain fabric from the 1960’s, and the blue one, a gift for my younger sister, is a medley of tiny remnants, but the center of the flower was a remnant of a blouse Mom had made for herself. Touching, cutting, sewing these little pieces of the past on the Singer Featherweight that Mom bought me in the early 1970’s breathed new life into my grieving soul. “Play nice together!”, I heard myself saying to the remnants, something I heard Mom say to me as a child when I wanted to fight with my little sister instead of play with her. It made me smile again, remembering…seems the possibilities could be endless for more smiles, when the box of Mom’s sweet remnants comes out to play…

Back on the wagon

At the end of 2015, I made the decision that because of my VERY healthy stash of fabric, I would not buy any fabric in 2016. Alas, I fell off the wagon twice…once at a garage sale, while excited about several items, when I totally had a brain cramp and came home with the pink fabric. It wasn’t until I got home, showing the Mr. my ‘finds’ that I realized my ‘mistake’. HOWEVER, the blue striped fabric was a willful decision, when at a thrift store I saw it, wanted it, and bought it. UGH! Regardless of both purchases (equalling about $3.00) I feel pretty good about the year as a whole. It was fun to ‘make do’, and it forced me to be more creative than I would have been had I had the option to run out to the store to buy some new fabric. Will I try again? MAYbe, but I’m going to take a day to make the decision. And since there aren’t many garage sales during this season and the thrift stores won’t be open tomorrow, I’ll be safe waiting!