Picking up the Pieces
My parents recently came to visit, and bought with them a collection of bits and bobs that I began and then abandoned when I left home. Now is as good a time as any to get cracking again I guess. A paper-pieced section of patchwork that I began 16 years ago reminds me of days spent sitting on my bedroom floor surrounded by art supplies, school projects, half-finished ideas, and the fifty-odd books I had on loan from the public library at any one time. It's also the perfect project for my current situation (I haven't got a machine with me here in Ireland). I've already got a strong feeling that I'm not only a neater seamstress these days, but also a much quicker one, as I managed to tack and attach 21 pieces this morning. Much of the material is simply scraps from other projects, some mine and some my mother's. It's a lovely project with additional meaning attached now that my parents have moved from our family home in New Zealand to Saskatoon in Canada.
Lashing leather onto a the worn out soles of pair of slippers that I purchased in Serbia will doubtless become more of a priority as we head toward another winter (I took them home one christmas in the vague hope that my mother would do it for me - no such luck). For now though, they remain in hiatus as I wait for the necessary perma-lok leather needle to arrive in the post.
What about you guys? Any projects that you've picked up after decades to finish? Why did you stop? How does it feel to pick them up anew?
