I have needlecraft in my genes—my grandfather was a tailor and my grandmother was a charter member of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.
My grandmother’s specialty was crochet. She made this afghan while watching her soap operas and Perry Mason.
My mother preferred embroidery, especially cross-stitch.
Following my legacy, I began to dabble in the needle arts. Here’s an early design—very heartfelt, if not very skillful.
I stitched up Barbie clothes and eventually learned actual sewing skills in Home Ec. The mechanics of putting in a zipper fascinated me, but sewing a hem was pure drudgery. I didn’t have patience for fine tailoring, so I only sewed “Jiffy” patterns that didn’t take longer than a day.
This is a little experiment I did by painting fabric and then enhancing it with embroidery. I like the effect but never did anything else with this technique.
My interest in needlework faded until I saw the needlepoint designs of my talented friend, Polly. I liked the idea of painting with wool using various stitching styles. That resulted in colorful pillows I designed and stitched.
Needlepoint is also ideal for chair seats and footstools (I wrote about the chair in my post on Chairs and the world map footstool in my post about World Globes).
I resurrected my sewing skills by making and dressing a cloth doll for my daughter while I waited for her adoption to be finalized. I then bought the Russian version when I went to bring my daughter home.
Confession: I have a sewing project that has wanted my attention for many months—a quilt. I’ve never sewn a real quilt, but I ran out to buy all the supplies and fabrics last winter and they are all still sitting in a bag. Waiting.
Until next time, cherish your clutter!
The Clutter Chronicles 