When this whole Covid-19 stay at home, self-isolate, quarantine business started, I felt it would be therapeutic for me to: be busy, be productive and be creative. Those three Bs took various forms for me. In this post I'll discuss one of them.
In July I fell heir to a box of fabric scraps from my friend Nadine. That box held a few other treasures as well. One of them was the edging of what I believe was a pillow sham. As I inspected it, I was met with fond memories from my childhood. I spent as much time at my Ankela's house growing up as I did in our own home. I noticed that whenever her sewing machine was not used, it was decoratively decked with a crochet table cloth that was created my my Sanna Basl. Dozens of squares were joined together, each with a bright pink rosette in the centre.
The pillow sham I found in the box of fabric scraps was made with the same pattern, but with yellow rosettes. When my sister Joanne saw it she suggested, "Elma you could make a card or something out of this." It sat on my desk for several weeks before I decided to make "something" out of it. In this respect, I'm my mother's daughter. If there's anything my mom loves more than knitting slippers, it's unraveling an old worn-out item such as a sweater or afghan and re-purposing the yarn to create a new pair of slippers.
As I carefully undid the threads that had fastened the squares to the fabric, I started planning h
ow I would re-purpose the crocheted squares. The more I worked, the more I realized that they must have been crafted decades ago as the crochet cotton was very delicate already. Upon closer inspection, I discovered that several stitches had already become undone. To date, I haven't discovered whose hand created this fine work.
Once I had four separate squares, I hand-washed them gently and soaked them in salt water (as a stiffening agent). Next, I smoothed them out and pinned them to a sheet of Styrofoam to make them as square as possible. Since the crocheted pieces had evoked such warm memories, I decided to look for a fitting quote to include with my new projects... I stitched the squares and quotes to poster board and ta-da! Now that they're framed, each time I gaze upon them, I'm brought back to my childhood and my Ankela's house where I've collected such a wealth of memories!
