Although I've been on break from quiltmaking for a while now, I am spending some time with stitchery.
Currently I'm working along on this Color Wheel by Drop Cloth Samplers -- a pleasant little project which is filling time and keeping my mind occupied. It's simple and small, and the hardest part about it is choosing which color of floss to use next in the rainbow gradation. I have a complete lifetime set (400+ skeins) of DMC floss, so lots of choices.
Looking back with nostalgia ... I've been involved with textile/fiber activities all my life. I started sewing my own clothes when I was in 6th grade, and doll clothes before that. Quiltmaking commenced when I was 15. Knitting, crochet, spinning and dyeing, handweaving, basketry, felting, needlepoint, embroidery ... you name it, I've done it. But in my memory, ranging back almost 7 decades, this type of outline 'stitching' was the first. I distinctly recall working on what I would now describe as penny squares, small pre-printed images of happy little animals. I think my mom probably set this activity up to occupy me when she had my brother, so I would have been 5 going on 6 at the time. I can clearly picture a little doll quilt made up of those stitched squares. My mom and I didn't have a good relationship, but she sewed, always, and therefore so did I.
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