A Special Coleection

My studio is the place where you will find me nearly every day.  Usually I am engaged in either sewing/quilting activities or in painting/drawing.  Today I spent time cutting fabric for a quilt I started in late fall and for which I have made only eight blocks.  To me that cutting was a huge step towards getting more blocks made in this complex, labor intensive pattern.  I also cut out fabric I had purchased specifically for pillowcase because that's a really good sewing project for spare moments if  the fabrics are ready.  I still need to do the second cuts on the fabrics for the complex pattern and pin the pillowcase fabrics, but what I did is move ahead with things that had simply been piled up.

Then I turned my attention to ironing some cloth napkins used at Christmas time.  Once those were done, I thought of other - what my mother would call "flat work" that also awaited ironing.  So out came my piles of unironed hankies.  This is an easy task that I - if I have the time - truly enjoy.  It's a soothing, mindless task, and my collection of vintage hankies is large.  I have hankies for specific holidays and specific seasons.  I have genre hankies: art, hobbies, travel, dietary and etiquette reminders, souvenirs, etc. There are some that have special handwork: crocheted, tatted, and hemstitched edges, embroidered and appliqued surfaces.  And you know I have left some out.

Many of my hankies I bought myself, a few came from my mother, and many more have been gifts - especially from my SiLs N and A.

Here's a photo of a few of my hankies. You will see different piles because I was sorting them into groups by color, season, holiday, etc.  The little white pieces of paper tells me the category and the number in that category - so far.

The photo shows only a very small number of the hankies; some were so wrinkled by being pushed around in the drawer as I searched for a particular one that I decided to put them in the laundry and start fresh with them.

There are days when taking time for this sort of activity, the kind of task that brings with it memories both happy and sad, is well worth both the time and the energy.