Monday, August 27, 2012

Earlier Crafting


I was probably about 8 or 9, it was summer, and my two cousins Maureen & Charlene were spending their summer days at my house.  It had been raining, and I’m sure we were driving my mom crazy.  From somewhere out came a preprinted cross stitch baby sheet with 12 panels of bunnies.  She cut it out so we each got 4 panels, 2 boys and 2 girls.  That summer she taught us how to pick out colors, and do some basic embroidery stitches.  My Grandma told me when I finished it she would quilt it for me.  I don’t know about my cousins, but I didn’t do a whole lot of it during the summer, and the pieces were stacked away in the one day I will do this pile.  I started my stash early.  Perhaps this was my first long term craft project.  I remember carting it around with me when I moved first to Hamilton then to Ft Lauderdale, and ultimately to college.  In college the craze was counted cross stitch.  My friend Donna & I made all kinds of projects our freshman year, pictures for the wall, pillows and sachets.  One day I finished the bunnies.  It probably only took a few hours.  My grandma quilted them as promised 10 years ealier, and my children used the little blanket when they were babies. Kimi later used it for her dolls.  It now has a place of honor hanging on my wall.


My mom owned an art gallery in St Catharines Ontario - Folkersen Art Galleries at the Penn Center when I was little.  I loved to see the artists when they visited.  I had a huge crush on John Par who did portraits.  I one year he went to Morocco and brought me back a few glass beads.  I wonder what ever happened to them?  The gallery was cool, but for me what was better – Mr. Galloway’s store at the other end of the mall.  The Galloways played cards with my parents, so I think my mom was ok that I would hightail it over there every chance I got.  Mr Galloway was always quick to give me a package of beads that had a tear in them.  I think sometimes he tore them just for me.  The big craze then was tri-beads.  I made necklaces for everyone.  But my favorite beads were glow-in-the-dark.  The beads didn’t make it to Florida.

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