The Social Porcupine

silk tatted lace edging for my wedding dress If you asked me as a young girl what I wanted to do when I grew up, I wouldn't have had some answer that suggested I wanted to labor away for some corporation eight hours every weekday. I had no visions of being a Redcross nurse and patching up soldiers (unless it was for the other side), or of being some schoolteacher (I'd have encouraged all the students to play hooky), or of being the secretary to the President of the United States (nor of being the president).    No, I'd have told you that I would much prefer to make leather shoes and spin yarn for sweaters for my babies... and tat lace. Even now, I can't imagine a better aspiration than to sit in a rocker of luxurious wood on embroidered cushions and tat yards of silk lace with my silver shuttle. We all have a grandmother, or a friend who has a grandmother, who made lace. Depending on their heritage and background, they may have done tape lace, bobbin lace, ...

An era of my life is finished.  Last night I tied the last knot on this quilt, a project for my hope chest that's been with me since February 2018. A friend said it must feel like a child after all this time. Not really, it is more like an unanswered thesis. But it is written, and for that I am thankful.  This quilt is something I began to dream at twelve years old when I found the embroidery pattern, a bunch of baskets of flowers, at a quilting shop. When I "won" a Janome sewing machine (pretty sure the woman just liked me and drew my name and called it a "second winner". She also copied out the pattern for me, because I'd admired it for so long, and told me to someday use it.  Years passed, and then one day, a little over five years ago, I needed something to lift me out of a mindset. The s ong based on Psalm 42 by the Sing Team was my current favorite song. It felt like I was eating a lot of tears and would be for the rest of my l...

For those of you that follow me on Instagram and Facebook , you may know that I've been working on a King sized quilt, completely by hand. For those of you that don't know (and even those of you that do know) , you may be asking, "Are you crazy? Why would you be doing something like that?" Sometimes I feel crazy. But not long enough to give up this amazing project. When I was younger I used to do a ton of embroidery, sewing, and knitting. One day, when I was about twelve, I had this amazing idea to combine all my skills into a single quilt. I'd make it for my hope chest. It would have embroidered blocks, hand knitted lace, and floral patterns. There was this sewing machine shop I used to love because I sorta won a really nice sewing machine for them (sorta, because I didn't actually win the first drawing, but they did another drawing and I won that one!). I told the lady that owned the shop about my idea for a quilt and she gave me a pattern for ...