A Bit of Cloth, A Bit of Time...

Having signed up for TAST 2012, I started thinking about how much embroidery I've done in my lifetime. Not that much, I'm afraid, even though it's an artistic endeavor that I really enjoy. I've done pillowcases, clothing, decorative pillows, towels, many of them as gifts to others.

I realized I only have one item that's been saved over the years. This is it. It looks a little odd because it's  behind glass in a frame. The fabric it's on is blue jeans, and it's a little worse for the wear. It's forty years old, after all.

This was the first thing I ever did for myself, in terms of decorative stitching. I'd done a red and orange sunburst that was made up as I went along, on the thigh of the jeans of my then-boyfriend, Nimrod, but I had no imagination when it came to my own bell-bottoms, so I walked to the local Ben Franklin and bought an Aunt Martha's pattern that I felt represented my self at the time, at least in terms of what limited patterns were available that day at Ben Franklin. This was better than a teapot.

When the jeans became too tattered to wear any longer, I just couldn't bring myself to throw them away. It didn't feel right. So I cut off the bell bottom and framed it, and carted it around over the next forty years in moves to at least a dozen residences and three other states. From Hawaii to Illinois to Washington back to Hawaii to California, it came with me.

Twelve times I'd looked at it, weighed the feeling of getting rid of it, and tucked it into a moving box, instead, and then unpacked and hung it somewhere in the new place to which I'd moved. I got rid of Nimrod somewhere along the way, but not this.

Silly, I know, but when I look at this, I'm reminded of the young, idealistic, happy, hopeful, loving, young girl who embroidered it and wore it so proudly, humble as the work was. And I feel that girl inside me, and look at the world once again through her eyes. It's a part of my history, a reminder of a part of my life, just as the stitching we do for others becomes a part of their history in some way, and a reminder of a time in their lives, and of us in their lives.

Not a bad result, for a bit of cloth, a bit of time, and some colored thread. I can't wait to see the creativity of the people who've signed up for TAST, and be inspired by them. What was your first sewing project, or something you did for yourself that has some significance in your life?