A weekend visit, then, to my Mum's in Melbourne (Florida, that is, not Australia - tho' that'd be a welcome trip too!). Chilly weather for thrifty browsing and bookshopping.
Chatting by the (faux) fire in the living room while watching
and 
, Mum shared her frustration with her declining sewing skills. Neuropathy in her hands, an after effect of chemotherapy, makes hand stitching uncomfortable. Her dressmaking training back in the UK demanded perfection and she is dissatisfied now with her results in piecing quilts or hand quilting.
So I shared with her Gwen Marston's book
.AH! She is excited now to proceed and not worry about perfect 1/4" seams and matching points and straight lines.
She has been given permission to be imperfect ;-)The emerging junior sewist was surprised with a package in the mail from her Grandma (above) and has shared her new passion with her friends - giving them lessons, yesterday, in sewing on the machine.
And me? Domestic stitching (more oven mitts for gifts). And setting up swaps for Girl Scouts. I'm creatively frozen.
I love this post, struggling as I am with arthritic hands and losing my own ability to create to the perfection I demand of myself. So I will be looking up the book you showed in your post (at amazon.co.uk). No longer can I handstitch, nor do anything with the skill I once could, so I feel for your mom, yet personally I am determined to go on creating, as best I can.
ReplyDelete"creatively frozen" is a good term for it, and a situation that happens to me all too often... maybe my mind just rebels and takes some time off from the frenzy of ideas that are always rolling about?? I'm glad to see you are back creating again in your newer posts. (and I love that little fire and marshmallows in the pic!)
ReplyDelete