One of my quilting magazines came in this week. That's always a time of great celebration. You take the magazine, your favorite beverage, and a quilt, and find a place to hibernate while you flip through it and get a sense of the contents. If you have enough time, you can read it from cover to cover.
This particular magazine has an ongoing column of tips offered by readers. There was one tip that was so very clever, I had to laugh.
THis woman wrote in, talking about orphan projects....those projects that you started with such good intention, but partway through the process you have abandoned them, never to finish. We all have them. Some of us have more of them than we'd care to admit. I have one or two. Well....maybe three.
At any rate, this woman had one of the best tips I'd ever heard. She directed the reader to box the orphan project up in a lovely box, complete with attractive tissue paper and wrapping, and a bow around the box. Then you were to write a loving note to your daughter, and attach it to the box and put the entire thing on a shelf in your closet.
Your daughter would find the box when you were gone, and know that you were thinking of her.
I told my mother to be sure that my SISTERS names were on the boxes.
Comments (7)
Mom once bought a kit from which to make a cross-stitch bedspread for me. After 15-20 years, and not having started the bedspread, she gave the kit to me. I didn't like the color scheme that the kit came with (turqoise and olive) so bought new embroidery floss--in 3 colors (taupe, cream, chocolate). That was in the early-mid 1980s. A couple of years ago, Dudette and I talked about doing the bedspread together. We've not started. I should probably replace the embroidery floss, again! (Oh, yes, while buying the embroidery floss out in California, I purchased another bedspread to do. Of course, it hasn't been started, either--have never even bought the floss!) Since retirement, I've given a couple of my orphan projects to the Disabled American Veterans. That way Bogie and Dudette won't need to pitch them when I check out.
Posted by Cop Car | August 24, 2004 12:55 AM
Posted on August 24, 2004 00:55
Orphaned projects.
That's a lovely way of putting it.
I often wonder what happens to all the scraps of wool and fabric and buttons and things that people accumulate over a lifetime, when they die.
Posted by Blue Witch | August 24, 2004 10:30 AM
Posted on August 24, 2004 10:30
So far, a seamstress friend's family have had two garage sales to get rid of boxes and boxes of yard goods/yarns/buttons/etc that she left. Dumb me, I took 3 huge boxes of the stuff, myself--sentimental value. After sending everthing through the washing machine (stuff had been stored in a garage), I re-evaluated and gave much of it to the Disabled American Veterans and several nice pieces to my sister-in-law who sews like a pro. However, I just used 5 of the buttons, the other day, to replace those on a big shirt (that had one missing).
Posted by Cop Car | August 24, 2004 3:38 PM
Posted on August 24, 2004 15:38
BW...it's a kinder way to describe all those projects that get left behind. It's the nature of a quilter to amass a stash. "She who dies with the most fabric wins!"
I suspect that their families take some of it, and box the rest up for estate sales or give it to the fund raising groups. It's rather sad to think about, actually. I hope some of mine will go to my sisters and some will go to friends.
Posted by Buffy | August 24, 2004 5:00 PM
Posted on August 24, 2004 17:00
Cop Car....I was reading about the bedspreads and envisioned a huge box with Bogie's name on it! lol I'm relieved to see that you were able to part with them. If we have unfinished projects that have been with us as long as our children....it's a sign that maybe we should give them up.
I would have had a similar problem at that garage sale. I've been longing to buy "found things" for crazy quilting, but I don't know where I'd store the stuff.
Posted by Buffy | August 24, 2004 5:07 PM
Posted on August 24, 2004 17:07
Hey, I still have some of Mom's feed sack materials that I can bring you. I gave some of them to a friend who said that she would use them in quilts, but I don't know how a person could quilt using such coarsely woven fabrics!
P.S. Had I died before retirement, I'd have won. Boy! Did I have the fabrics.
Posted by Cop Car | August 28, 2004 3:53 PM
Posted on August 28, 2004 15:53
That's an astonishingly generous offer. What I'd rather see you do is ask your quilting neighbor for suggestions on advertising their availability. Sell them to the highest bidder, and then either buy your girls savings bonds, or treat them to dinner. Depending on how many you have, you might make a bundle on them....especially if women in my area heard about them! Next Friday is my quilting bee night. I'll have to try to remember to ask them what the going rate is for honest to goodness feed sack material.
btw....my sister swears that my mother sewed some clothes for her during the war, using feed sack material.
Posted by Buffy | August 28, 2004 3:57 PM
Posted on August 28, 2004 15:57