Skip to main content

Circling

Slow stitching on on mini quilt made of two vintage handkerchief gave me some time to think this week. The old cotton was like gauze, really, and so fragile I needed to be mindful of where my needle tip was at all times, and how much I could safely tug on the embroidery thread.

Mostly I thought about my mom, who always carried handkerchiefs in her purse. As a kid I thought of that as one of the ladylike things a woman was expected to do. I never did the same. Like being regarded as a lady, the thought of carrying around a wad of snotty cloth in my bag never appealed much to me. I wanted a Swiss Army knife like the one my dad always carried in his front pocket. I bought myself one with my first paycheck after I left home, and still carry one in my purse.

I was never the daughter my mother wanted, I've always known that. I could never be a religious woman or the mother of a large family; that was her life. What she believed to be the right life for a woman was like her handkerchief. How I lived instead was my Swiss Army knife. And now as I stitch on old hankies and think of her, I simply hope she's at peace. I am.

Comments

nightsmusic said…
I loved my mother, but we butted heads a lot. She came from a family with four brothers and had to fight for everything. I was an only child and while I was certainly not spoiled in any way whatsoever due to a severe lack of money and my mother's inability to really connect with me, the 'motherly love' that most, not all, mothers have for their children just wasn't there. I know why, too long a story, but I loved her right up to the minute she died and I still do. Miss her terribly too. And I too hope she's found her peace. She didn't seem to have a lot in life.

I can't decide if I like the front or the back of that hankie better! They're both pretty stunning.
March 27, 2022 at 6:08 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Downsizing

This was my fabric stash once I sorted everything -- 22 full bins. I spent a day taking out and boxing up what I could part with, with the goal of trying to reduce it by half, so I'd have 11 bins. I was very strict with myself, and removed everything that for one reason or another I was sure I wouldn't be able to use. This is what I ended up with -- 12 bins of fabric that I'm keeping. It's not quite half, but close enough. Half of what I took out went to a local quilter friend, a school and Goodwill. These four tightly-packed bins will be going to the local quilting guild once I make arrangements with them for a drop-off place. I am relieved and a little sad and now determined to control my impulses to thrift more fabric. I don't want to do this again, so until I use up six bins, I can't for any reason bring any new fabric into the house.
Post a Comment
Read more

In Progress

I promised myself I would show you the good, bad and ugly of my cleaning this year. This is what it looks like when you dump thirty years' worth of stashed fabric on the floor -- and oy, what a pain in the butt to pick up again! This is what it looks like after it's been sorted, folded and placed in containers, which took me about a week. Now the hard part is to downsize my stash by at least half, I think (that's my goal, anyway.) I've already e-mailed the president of the local quilting guild, a local friend who is a quilter, and a public school art teacher I know to see if I can donate some of the excess to them. The rest will go to Goodwill. Already I've reduced my vintage textiles from two bins to one, and my scraps from three bins to one. It's probably the hardest clean-out I've done, which is why I saved it until last. I know I have too much fabric, more than I can use in my lifetime -- but at the same time, I love it. So I have to
Post a Comment
Read more

Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.
Post a Comment
Read more