The best gift ever

Today is my birthday, so I am going to tell the story of one of my favorite presents ever. It is a story most of you have likely heard before from friends, or even lived yourself, but mine has a little twist.

 

I started sewing in 5th or 6th grade. By Junior High I was using patterns to make dresses and blouses. My parents had bought my sister and me a heavy duty, all metal sewing machine for our own use, but everything else we scrounged from Mom--pins, thread, floss, scissors. This was fine. Mom was generous with our sewing attempts as long as we didn't use the sewing shears to cut paper.

 

But there came a day when I had fabric and patterns laid out all over the hard wood living room floors with the carpet rolled back to make more room. I was cutting and cutting and my hand was killing me. The problem? Left-handed scissors. I grew up as the only right-handed person in a family of four, in a house crammed to the rafters with left-handed scissors. There was not a single pair of right-handed scissors in the entire house. I remember grumbling quite a bit that evening. I think my mother may have even finished cutting out the final pattern for me because it was just too difficult.

 

As you can imagine, my family had very little sympathy for me. Since they were all left handed, they faced difficulties every time they picked up a pen, but I thought it was unfair. I grew up being told constantly that left handed people were superior in intelligence, creativity--everything. It didn't help that my Dad and sister's initials both spelled out GEM (at least phonetically--my sister is JEM). It was clear that being right handed meant being the lowest head on the totem pole.

 

But then came Christmas. And what was in my stocking, but a big pair of right-handed, orange-handled sewing shears. I was so surprised and so happy to see those scissors! They were my favorite gift that year--really one of my favorite gifts of all time. I used them for many many years until they were too dull to cut fabric. Then I bought another pair and delegated the originals for paper cutting. I try to keep the new ones just for sewing, but my husband doesn't understand my obsession not to use the sewing scissors on paper. Of course, he is left handed!

Now I live in an apartment full of right-handed shears!

 

 

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A pretty, prickly pincushion--cactus

Not long ago I was reading an article in Inspirations Magazine (Issue 71, 2011) about the Japanese Festival of Broken Needles, when I was truly inspired. An inset described a call for Stichin Fingers members (a social networking site for embroiderers) to provide photos of their needle keepers. Next to the inset was a photo of a pin cushion by Michele English that looked exactly like a live cactus. I found it so humorous that I HAD to figure out how to make one for myself.

 

Michele is a real artist specializing in felting. You can browse some of her work, including some felted cacti, on her blog's gallery. Her artistry was beyond me, so I developed my own cactus using craft felt and buttonhole stitches to shape it. Because mine didn't look nearly as realistic, I added a flower as a flourish.

 

I've made several cacti for family and friends during the last few months, and recently was asked for the pattern. It is available here as a PDF. It is my very first attempt at drawing a pattern and writing up instructions, so if you decide to make one up for yourself, let me know how it works!

 

 

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Fly the friendly skies, but leave your pin cushions at home

Flying is a challenge today for so many reasons. Take your shoes off, take your coat off, place your computer and liquids in a bin--no they need to go in separate bins. And once you make it past the gate and onto the plane, the seats are crammed so close together that there is hardly room to breathe, let alone embroider.

 

Once, though, there was enough room to actually knit on a plane--with big metal needles. I was even allowed onto a plane a few years ago with a 24-inch circular needle on which I was trying to knit a lace shawl. I couldn't believe that they let me on since I figured a circular needle would make a pretty good garrote. But, I guess that the Department of Homeland Security isn't worried about lone garroters on airplanes when there are so many other security threats to worry about.

 

For example, in the security line after a recent trip home to visit my husband, my luggage was searched. I thought I would be busted for my beloved rabbit scissors, even though I knew for a fact that the blades were less than the 4"-length allowed on flights. I was prepared to fight for them.

 

The agent rummaging through my belongings looked nervously at his colleague and then asked me, "Do you have a piece of art in here?" "No," I replied puzzled. "It looks like a lizard," his helpful colleague chimed in. "I don't have a lizard in my suitcase," I said and glared at the backup agent. "Do you have something metal in here--like a small statue?" "No, I don't have a statue." These TSA agents had to be nuts. They moved away to confer and look at the x-ray of my luggage. "It might be a rabbit," the first agent suggested when he returned.

 

"Well," I hesitated, feeling a little contrite. "I do have a pin cushion in my shoe." The agents carefully took my shoes out of the suitcase. Wrapped in paper and stuffed into the toe was a brass rabbit pin cushion with a pink velvet, sawdust-filled pad that I had found at an antique mall in Pawtucket. "I knew it was a rabbit and not a lizard," the first agent said to his colleague. "I never thought of it as a statue," I stammered, feeling quite a bit nervous now. The TSA agent took a deep breathe and blew it out slowly. Then he handed me the pin cushion and told me that I could go. As they moved on to the next person in line, I heard the agents laughing nervously at whatever security threat they thought I had posed. They never mentioned the scissors.

 

So if you are traveling with needlework in the future, remember that small scissors and circular knitting needles are fine to bring on planes, but pincushions could be construed as a major security threat, especially if they are hidden in a spare pair of shoes.

Guess which one TSA didn't like!

 

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