Recently the very fabric of our lives has been reduced to the essential: our basic need for food and shelter, our need for emotional connection with others, our need for mental occupation, and our spiritual need for Someone greater than ourselves.
Stripped of the ability to do a lot of non-essential activities, we are filling our time with other things - some of the things we seemed too busy for in the past but now are finding fulfilling and even essential.
As DH and I work around each other's work stations and engage in activities that are not always compatible (he wants to paint in a dust-free environment and I either want to clean or sew - both which create dust) we've had to weave new fabric into what is now our normal daily life.
Some of this new I hope we continue to keep - particularly those traits that have built character and strengthened our marriage. Other pieces of the fabric may get cut away and replaced with something else when this is all over.
Unlike the motivated whose stories I read on social media, I have not taken up a new hobby or fitness regime, and I have not spent hours each day practicing a musical instrument (I haven't touched either of my musical instruments despite good intentions).
Instead, I have grappled with the day to day living of what amounts to house arrest. I have tried to set boundaries around work and home - which is rather difficult when both occur in the same space - and I have limited time on social media for a variety of reasons (this does not apply to all those online meetings I am required to attend or which I set up to engage with family).
In the beginning I enjoyed some sleep-ins but with Daylight Saving having ended I find I'm now awake only half an hour later than I usually would wake on a work day.
I've appreciated having more time to pray - which began as a response of almost desperation as I looked to the only One who holds the key to all that is happening around us. I've also enjoyed not having to watch the clock when having my quiet time in the morning since there is at present no need to be out the door by 7:15am.
I've developed and discovered new skills in technology as I have connected with family, fellow believers, colleagues and students via a range of social media and technology (some successful some not so). I have loved being able to see family when talking to them via a phone or screen (I can remember how as a teenager when talking to someone on the phone we would idly dream about how wonderful it would be if only we could see each other, never imagining it would one day happen - well, it has and it is wonderful but it's also difficult all at the same time) but nothing replaces a face-to-face conversation and nothing - nothing - replaces a hug or cuddle from a loved one.
I have done about five times the amount of paperwork at home that I ever do at work and am still not caught up. While it's true that some of what we've been required to do we wouldn't have to do if teaching face-to-face, to still be so far behind is a little disheartening.
I've managed to do the teeniest amount of writing and was hoping to be able to tick a whole lot more off before returning to work in person. And I've discovered that lack of time is not the reason I have salt spray still on the outside of my windows or a jumbled wardrobe or a pile of clothing waiting to be ironed.
As at this time every year, we've collected and stewed and dehydrated and frozen and used in baking and eaten feijoas until they are coming out our ears. The only difference this year is that we can't give them away so they are clogging up our freezer until this is all over and we can rid ourselves of some of them. (Probably not the Feijoa, Date and Ginger cakes which will be all gone by the time lockdown is over.)
And I've been sewing. First, I undid the binding on one edge of a quilt that has been folded on top of my rocking chair for several years and which has rarely - if ever - been used (okay, maybe for the occasional cubby house or doll's bed). I added another two rows to make it a single bed size and redid the binding.
(Psst, the top photo is of the new colour in the room DH is painting. One son, who shall remain nameless, declared the colour "depressing" when he first saw the cardboard sample I had painted and said he wouldn't visit us with a room like that. I hope he changes his mind. It's actually a very uplifting colour and perfect for a family room.)
Next up was to hand quilt a small star quilt that I made earlier in the year. Unable to purchase fabric (until recently it wasn't considered an essential item) I used some leftover binding to finish the quilt. The pattern is Woven Star and, yes, only one block has the colours in the right order. I really messed up with this one.
I also decided to perfect my technique at half triangle squares (I actually make them a little bigger than required and then trim them to size - and the secret seems to be to press the seams before cutting apart). I started sewing then together to form split stars. I love the pattern … I love the fabrics … just not together. Now I am undoing fourteen or more of them after days of going back and forth of whether I liked them or not. There is no point in continuing on with a quilt that I don't like despite the time that has already gone into sewing. Undoing seams is no fun but I already have plans for how I can use the fabric when I'm done.
Something that was a little more successful began by accident and is made entirely from scraps. Entirely. When I first began sewing 2"/5cm scrap fabrics together I had no idea what I was going to do with them. There was just something calming about sending pair after pair under the needle of the sewing machine in mindless quick succession where the only cognitive process required was to ensure no two identical fabrics were joined next to each other. What started as leaders and enders became a therapeutic - and addictive - pursuit which in turn led to a stack of blocks just begging to be used.
In the bottom of my bucket of scraps I found the remainder of a solid fabric I had bought twelve or so years ago for Son#2's wedding quilt. I didn't end up using it for that quilt even though I had started marking it out because the colour was wrong but it came in useful for lining Christmas stockings and other small projects. However, with careful cutting there was just enough to go together with all the scrappy blocks to make a quilt. (I actually pieced together about fifty narrow pieces to form a border but then decided I preferred the quilt without.)
The batting was four pieces that I cobbled together and the backing was a fitted sheet that has not fitted any bed we have owned since our sixth month of marriage. (I know that sheets are generally frowned upon as backing but I had no problems with using this one - and besides, not only was it a perfect match for the front of the quilt, but I had absolutely nothing else that I could use).
For the past week, after dinner each night, DH and I have been "taking in a movie" on our screen/s and I would take this opportunity to hand quilt. As a result, I managed to quilt it in a week. Unheard of in the past for a quilt this size! The binding is made from more leftovers in which I had only enough to finish the quilt. I am under the unhappy or happy (depending on how you look at it) impression that I will need to go shopping after lockdown lifts as my fabric and batting stash which has always been limited to leftovers, is now pretty much zilch. I've even used up the very last bit of thread remaining on all my odd bobbins just so I could keep sewing! Even there, I am starting to run very low.
I'll admit that this isn't the prettiest quilt ever made and certainly not one that requires a lot of skill. It's plain and simple. But, I feel, it has its own certain charm. I love looking at all the fabrics that remind me of other quilts and items that I have made, including several wedding and baby quilts, and items made for my granddaughters. Some of the squares have pieces of fabric joined together to make a piece large enough to be pieced which, in some instances, when I didn't have a matching piece of fabric, created a "new" fabric.
This quilt, created from the small and sometimes overlooked pieces of fabric, will always remind me of these days of shutdown. Not just because it was made exclusively during this time but also because, just like our lives now, it is made up of the ordinary, blended together to make the whole.
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