Continuing Along The Craft Road

Yesterday I mentioned knitting afghans and mufflers in college, but I skipped over the most fruitful time of my sewing career. That was my last couple of years of high school (good old Campbell High in Smyrna, GA.) when Villager and Ladybug dresses were all the rage. Remember those? Well, basically, it was an A-line dress made of a flowered kettle cloth fabric, sleeveless with 2 darts on the front and a round neck, no collar. There were 2 little cookie pockets on the front with a very long zipper up the back. I could go over to Wayne's 5 & 10 and get the cloth for less than $2.00/yard and knock those things out all day long!!! That was my heyday. Then, in the Fall of 1967 when I started to college, pant suits were coming in. You had to put lapels on the jacket, and don't forget the sleeves (I hate sleeves), and the slacks had to be fitted and have a waist band and placket for the zipper. Oh, how the mighty had tumbled!!! No more sewing for me.

However, I did pick up ceramics and china painting along with cross stitch and needlepoint while in college. My Mother and I would go down to Montezuma, GA. where my aunts and uncles lived and, while we were there, we would go to a local ceramics shop and spend days making tea pots and Christmas dishes and little bowls and spoon rests and I even made a cute little ceramic jewelry box. The lady who ran the ceramics shop would not let you fail at anything. Everything came out looking like a professional had done it. Well, as professional as ceramics from a little shop in a podunk town in middle Georgia ever looked back in the late 60's. I later picked up ceramics again when my son was a baby. My church offered a free nursery for mothers taking classes on Wednesday mornings. So, I took ceramics classes for years. Probably would have been a lot cheaper just to hire a babysitter every Wednesday morning, but I had fun!!! The china painting came in one Summer during college. My Mother and I signed up for a class in a lady's home and went once a week for about 8 weeks. A few of the pieces we made in that class are still sitting in my china cabinet. China painting took more talent than I was able to provide, so I didn't continue. The needlepoint came in when I was a senior in college. I was dating "Ben the Wonderful", later to become DH, and for Christmas, I decided to do a needlepoint version of the crest of his fraternity. Never mind the fact that I had never done needlepoint before!!! I got my dear friend Claire to draw the fraternity crest on canvas, then I did the crest in petit point and the background in needlepoint. That was a masterpiece and still hangs in my upstairs hall. It was also the last piece of needlepoint I ever did. I took up counted cross stitch which I did for many years. Cross stitch is MUCH easier to me. Are you beginning to notice a tendency to pick up and drop crafts? So far in this narrative, we haven't discussed the collecting of tools and supplies to go with the crafts. But, I was beginning to develop my life theme: "Always having the right tools for the job is a wonderful thing." And, along with it the corollary: "You can NEVER have too many of the right tools!!!!"