Sew what

Can I sew? Let's break that down a bit, can we? I can get a machine threaded, provided it has arrows showing me the route, and the eye of the needle is large enough. If you want to talk about how the machine actually works, I am not your gal. Tension sounds bad to me, and I will always assume it should be less to fix the problem. I am not really sure what the numbers on the dial even mean, nor which situation calls for what. Patterns are good, but all of my good scissors have been used by other people to cut paper and are rather dull. Directions have to be simple for me to be able to follow, which most likely means the project itself cannot be too complex. The best answer I can give to the question of whether I can sew is that I can stitch straight lines.

Now have I let my limitations hold me back? Well of course I have, but not completely. For one thing, I am especially good at buying fabric. (You have recently seen the amount of thought and planning I put into how much I purchase for any given project.) I used to make fabric covered boxes. No sewing, just a lot of ironing and hot gluing and...coordinating materials. My favorite reason to peruse bolt after bolt of fabric, running my hand over the spines as though they were books, was in search of quilt fixin's. The colors, the themes...joy by the quarter yard! Yes, you can make a quilt by stitching in straight lines and using some elementary level math. 

What did all of this amount to? Two big tubs of fabric in the basement. How much free time do we have these days? Plenty. My friend started making masks and was saying words like "easy" and offering actual measurements...and the stitches were in straight lines! Was it possible that I could make myself useful? Was this the rainy day week month a fabric hoarder had been waiting for? I handed over yards of fabric for projects I never tackled to my friend to sew, since ideas that hadn't materialized (see what I did there?) were easy for me to relinquish. This left me plenty to work with both literally and figuratively as memories burst from each layer I flipped through.

Nearly all of the quilts I have made were for babies...pure joy! There was the pink spider web with purple spiders fabric I used for a neighbor years ago. She was pregnant with a baby girl and we had spent a few years taking delight in watching her two sons playing outside in a variety of superhero costumes. I wanted something that honored the small spiderman brothers, but was clearly girly. There were stars and moons leftover from the "From our babies to yours" quilt we gae my son's first grade teacher when she was expecting. Each square had a baby photo of her students from that class. 

There was Barbie, leftover from making a quilt pattern type pillowcase for my niece.

There was some fabric from a quilt I made for a dear teacher friend when she was expecting her first grandchild...

...and then peace, love and rainbows for her second grandchild...

Left to right...The bees and ladybugs were the drapes and crib bumpers that awaited our firstborn. The stars were used for some fourth of July table linens over twenty years ago. The last was a three time mask chooser's favorite...

...leftover from the quilt I made for a baby who is now four years old. He calls me sometimes and asks me to tell him everything I want to tell him.

I know I bought the strawberry fabric because it reminded me of all the years we picked fresh berries in my grandparents' garden. I had about two yards of Bills fabric that were clearly destined to be something fabulous for my husband. Those chili peppers were leftovers from a small quilt, like a wall hanging size, I made for a friend over twenty years ago. The SU fabric was lugged to the cutting counter because, why not!

This was the first full batch...

...and this was the second...

A request came in from a friend out of town, and I was able to eek out one Harry Potter mask with the leftovers from this wedding gift that highlighted the bride and groom's shared interests.

And when she requested a smaller one in the event that her youngest needed to leave the house any time later this spring, of course I had a little something left from the quilt I sent that "baby" just over five years ago.

I am down to one bin of fabric now, and yes, there are still pieces far too small to amount to anything other than a memory and a smile.


**Update: I  just placed a small fabric order for curbside pickup. I will be making masks for a special occasion coming up next week...stay tuned...