The object of my affection is a 'garden tote bag'. The bag is an experiment, as most of my crafts are, but this one has no intended recipient. I just thought maybe I could do it. The book says it will take only 3-4 hours. I'm on day three. Day one just involved picking out the material and cutting the pieces. On day two I began sewing but stopped when a particular set of instructions just were not computing. On day three (yesterday) I read the instructions again and suddenly a light bulb went off (the aha moment as we say in the consumer research business) and I was able to complete the next several steps. Then the instructions seemed to inexplicably assume I knew what I was doing, leaving plenty to figure out on my own. So what do I do with the extra bottom piece? Why do I need to leave four inches unsewn? Shouldn't I be attaching the pockets in some way? I began to improvise and that's how I ended up in my chair with the seam ripper.
And that's when I thought about my mom. My mother was a very good seamstress, crafter, do-it-yourselfer kind of gal. I inherited her interest, but not her talent. She'd have been able to fill in the gaps easily. She was a puzzle solver.
I remembered a pillow I made a million years ago. I can see my mother showing it to one of her friends remarking on how I'd made it. She seemed prouder of that pillow than any grade I ever got in school. At some level I guess, you hope your kids are a little bit like you. Perhaps that pillow made her think, "Yes, she is my daughter!" I sometimes look at Teen and wonder if she picked anything up from me and I admit I perk up just a little bit more when I hear she got an A on a math test, my favorite subject in high school.
Today I will pick up those instructions and read them again. Perhaps I'll have another aha moment. Perhaps today mom will be up in heaven singing, "yes, she is my daughter!"
