Wednesday, January 25, 2012

This Post Needs A Title Love and Stitches


Another fat quarter... ironed, squared, hemmed, blanket stitched, and trimmed with crochet. And I love it. I am smitten. I like how fun it is to choose a print, and to play with the stitches, and I like that I can start it and play with it in minutes throughout the day, and complete it without breaking a sweat. This one I, bravely, released into the world, as a hostess gift. I say "bravely," because I may have a minor (read: totally obsessive) fabric attachment.

Do you find yourself thinking about the person you are making a gift for? I do. It's a kind of tender intimacy I feel whenever I am creating something for a particular person, because my mind sort of meditates on how I feel about them, and my wishes for them, what a great person they are...

(off topic, but how does one grammatically make the "they" and the "are" and the "them" and the "is" jibe? Because I suspect I am messing with my plural/singular/English/proper language skills. *Embarrassed.*)

My point is: handmade gifts get a lot of love put into them. I like to think about the person I am making the gift for, and it makes me happy, feel blessed, feel connected, and the process becomes a gift for myself, to be reminded how I feel about this individual.

Would you like to see something?


This!

Yes, a pillowcase, with a sheep stack.

I don't know how to describe how I feel about this. It's weirdly adorable.
I saw it on Etsy*, and sent the link to Geoff, like a month ago. I so completely and totally forgot that I did this, and then a few days ago Geoff handed this package to me... I was blank, in love, but blank, and he had to remind me that I sent him the link!

It took me about thirty years to figure out that he really does not know what-how-when-where to shop for me, and that there is no correlation between this fact and his love for me, so every now and then I email him suggestive material... so to speak. Clues. Hints. Something that figuratively grabs him by the shoulders and says: Think man! Her birthday is in twelve months, and she thinks a pillow case would be really great! Buy this. He actually loves me more for doing this for him, and now that I see how well it works, well... yeah, lucky me!


Nothing is safe! Because weirdly adorable is even better with a crocheted edge, I totally went to town on my pillowcase. Oh, and pardon the wrinkles, but my head mushed it all up, when I was counting sheep last night.

*Holy Farm Critters! They have chicken towels!!?!

6 comments:

Alison said...

How about "Love and Stitches?"

I love that sheep stack, too!

(No answer on the language issue. English is oddly awkward in that way. French would handle it with aplomb, as I suspect would Spanish.)

Natalie, the Chickenblogger said...

Good one! Thank you.

English IS "oddly awkward." I prefer weirdly adorable.

Dianna said...

I should start sending my husband links to things I love. This is a great idea!

Susan said...

Hi, Natalie! I have trouble with that whole awkward grammar they/he/she/it subject/verb agreement thing, too. But I DON'T have any trouble with how adorable that pillow case is! I bet it feels really smooth and cool under your cheek. My big question is how do you get that crocheted edging onto that finely woven fabric?

Natalie, the Chickenblogger said...

It took a lot of links before I actually made a *catch!* But it's fun... like circling favorites in a toy catalog, and just enjoying the wishful-ness of it!

Natalie, the Chickenblogger said...

Susan, dear friend. Never mind grammar, the main thing is to keep talking, right? So nice to hear from you. With the pillow case, or dish towels, first thing I do is blanket stitch the edge... a sharp and large eyed embroidery needle and DMC Cotton Perle 5. Then I just do a row of single stitch crochet on the blanket stitch, and build from there. I hope that makes sense.