4.14.2020

The Meaning in the Mess


Yes, I had a bit of a "moment" with my computer yesterday!!!!  I didn't get all the way to meltdown, but very, very close!  At some point I had the mental wherewithal to step away from the screen and call a 'life-line' (i.e. my bright spark son!) and he was able to talk me off the digital cliff and back to reality.  What brought this on....?  

I have been saying for a while now that I would like to have an Instagram account that would be for sewing stuff.  Sounds innocent enough.  I have an account that I have been "practicing" with for about 2 years...yes, I needed a lot of practice!  It is a private account that I have been keeping my travel pictures on.  I post a picture each day of any trips I take and it has become a virtual scrapbook of my travels.  It often reminds me of my Grandmother's scrapbooks.  She was meticulous about putting photos in albums.  I can still remember the taste of those little black sticky corners that she would use to attach the photos to the pages.  I always admired her dedication to doing this, but never could muster the time, desire, energy....whatever it takes...to keep up with photo albums.  My instagram page has worked really well.  It is easy to do, I do it each day so I don't have to remember later what the photo is about or where I was when it was taken, and I have a record of where I have been.  But I digress...

Yesterday was the day!  The plan was to spend the morning setting up a new instagram page and then connecting it to this blog page.  Again, what could be simpler!?  Well, let me say again.....


I could regale you with all of the gory details, but let's just leave at this...I spent the entire day in front of my computer, which I haven't done since retiring!  I did finally manage to get everything working, I think??????, but not without heroic efforts on the part of my husband and son!  I will now need a very long break before trying anything technology related!  I'm thinking I might schedule that root canal surgery I've been putting off!  

So, I will be trying to put some of my sewing projects on my newly created instagram page.  I haven't quite figured out how many or when so it will be a work in progress.  I hope it will become a bit like my travel page and be a running record of what I have been working on...time will tell.

The first post I did was my "Easter Bonnet."  It started as a challenge to my sewing pals, to make Easter hats to wear for our Easter Sunday zoom meeting.  Apparently it was not much of a challenge because there was only one other hat at the meeting.  A very cute and creative hat...but just the one.  (I will have to come up with more stimulating challenges!)  To be honest, after I put it out there I wasn't all the excited about it either!  But I did open my big mouth....

I had made a small little hat during a sewing retreat several years ago.  It sits in the corner of my work space and reminds me of the lessons I brought home with me.  Some of them born out of frustration. (see above.  😳)  I have thought about trying to use the same idea to make a larger version and now, in the midst of some major uncertainty, seemed like a good time.  


I started with several layers of different white linens.  Different shades and different textures.  I randomly stitched the layers to keep them together and then began to make darts to get it from a flat piece to more of a hat shaped piece.

          

At this point I thought about making some kind of sculptural brim with the corners, but everything I tried looked like a crazy tricorn hat that Bugs Bunny would have worn in a Looney Tunes version of Washington Crossing the Delaware.  (I'm sure it's out there somewhere on Youtube.)  So I ditched that idea and chose to make a simple 'bucket' hat.


When I was finished I was really glad that I had done it.  The journey from flat to hat was very satisfying when there are so few things that seem definite right now.   Starting with no real plan and ending up with an actual 'thing' felt reassuring some how.  AND...I like it!  It's actually quite comfortable and will do a bang up job of keeping the sun off my nose when summer arrives.

Being totally adrift or totally frustrated are not my first choices of ways to spend my time, but there always seem to be lessons there if I'm willing to tough it out.  As a friend of mine recently mused...

"Never waste a good crisis!"




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