The other day I was browsing through "scraps" of fabric. Yes, scraps. As I did this I thought of my son outside waiting for me- opting for music on the radio vs. coming into the Fabric store.
"They are soo boring."
J had said on some occassion where we had waited a mere half hour to have a slice of felt cut.
ME: "Are you kidding me? When I grew up we had fabric stores that ONLY sold FABRIC. Heck, here you could go look at some stickers or wood to make something, paint it, or cut paper out into amazing things. There are even toys.
"And the music was not this hip hop over the stereo right now. It was straight Barry Manilow.,"
J: "Berry Who?"
(The weather has been incredibly warm and so it makes it hard to sit in the chair this way...)
Anyway, I thought it so interesting having worked at a craft store, my mom now does, and how much I enjoy fabric and yarn and can't really do anything amazing with it.
One of my sisters seems to be a quilting machine or something cause she can whip up amazing award winnning quilts, but I can do the basics and that is basically it.
But I love fabric! How soft it is! Well the kind I was rubbing my hand across because I was looking for the fabric that would go on the back side of all the shirts J. can't get rid of. Becaues they are his history- the track meets he's won in, the teams he sweat alongside with-- heck I could make the backing out of all the jerseys he has had to buy with each basketball session.
(a scrap of paper that gave me an idea for the downstairs mantle using items I already had!)
However, snuggling up with that next to ya doesn't seem like it would be fun and those jerseys could still be rank. Where were we? Oh, soft scraps of fabric sold in stores that play musis that put kids to sleep or shriek.
I couldn't find the exact soft material that my neighbor had whipped up into a scarf for me- see how amazing scraps can be?- and had to go with a longer more lush, Grizzly Bear softness material. That, with the amount of shirts I wanted to put ON the blanket, would cost as much to buy the kind of rifle needed, and the amount a taxidermist would need to keep him in the pose of almost eating me.
But it was so soft! I looked up and there was a pillow made out of some of it. I could do that with that patch. Or do as, Rachael, the friend I met there, suggested and put it in the midddle and the sides of the blanket.
(another page from a magazine that gave me ideas for the holidays- which, due to the balmy 56 we had today makes it confusing. J. came home and threw on some shorts. Notice the quilt- it was half a quilt that Grandma liked to say was for just putting over you when you sat in a chair and watched TV.
And there is a clothes pin in there. Another Ode to my mother's mom. She made doll furniture for us girls out of it when we were young and we thought it was so fun.)
I have no idea if I will get to the pillow this year. But it does fit in with his nature room whether graduates from The Grizz HS, or not.
There are scraps of material that I let go that made me mad at myself for not keeping, but while in de-cluttering boot camp; there is a point to let go. Unnntil you find out that Pinterest existed (after four years) and they re-cycle, upcycle, Twice Around the Block, Stuff and you find you should have held on a little bit longer. Until some guy invented antiquining.
(other things that inspired me and a journal where I scribbled it all down.)
Truth be told there are just a couple things I thought:
"Wow! that merino wool lined pair of pants I no lnger fit would be awesome in a Christmas Wreath!! Or as some kind of plaid ornament!"
No,, I come from a long line of scrap keepers. My mom has the best scraps. And she has the best skills to bring to pass the projects she has in mind. The mailman brought me an interesting gift recently that had to do with just sort of thing: Making things I can't make; quilts. But inside were old school books and patterns that had belonged to my grandmother.
(One of the wreaths is finished and embellished with a star that has a theme J. and I chose for this season: All is Well. The Wreath behind it has some work to be done on it and a brown star will go with it. Another bad pic taken by myself but it has been fun to play with yarn and use up those Amazon boxes. I actually love the styrofoam ones the best but sometimes an idea can't wait!)
My aunt had sent them to me along with letters and stamps to start my Christmas letters! But what I found really interesting was my grandmother's writing on a scrap piece of paper. Listed on it were the items she wanted to get from the fabric store. Quarter yard of such and such fabric, little doo-dads.
Did she ever get them? Were they just listed and left in the book like a lot of my unfinished projects?
(I gotta get on these babies. Which, like I have said before, it is good I started preparing for Christmas in the Summer or else I would not have five cards written yet.)
Speaking of which- I gotta wrap this up. More later on why. Sheesh, a woman can't even finish a blog post without things hindering the way!
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