A Pondering Prompt for your Summer
I have friends on Zoom meetings whose desks are in their craft rooms. I can’t take my eyes off the stacks of so many shades of folded cottons behind them on their shelves for piece quilts. Other friends have stashes of antique sewing and embroidery, yarn, paint, beads and gemstones. I keep a word and idea stash. For all of us these treasures we save present possibilities.
Bets in southern Nevada recently took some early 19th century pieces of vintage garments to her American Sewing Guild. Members were able to examine the fabric, sewing techniques, and embellishments of the top of a wedding dress, several little girl’s smocked dresses, and a big poof of delicate tulle made in Belgium. I have a stash of crocheted doilies, tatting, and embroidered pillowcases that I have incorporated into garments, purses, and collages.
Elizabeth in North Carolina says that what she has stored in her yarn stash in baskets, bags and boxes is special to her because of Color, Fiber, Texture, and Softness. Other yarns are special because they may have come from local sheep, a local dyer, or farm. In designing a sweater, she has some utilitarian choices—make certain she has enough of a color to knit two sleeves and the front and back. On the body, she may work in rows of small cables or open lace stitches. Elizabeth is known for her yoke sweaters, knit top-down. “I like to knit yokes in the round with many colors and textures. I look at how one color contrasts against another. What will make a color pop? I consider complimentary colors, colors adjacent and across from each other on the color wheel.” When creating she pulls from her yarn stash to see what speaks to her in that moment.
Sandy in Arizona whose paintings, drawings and quilts I much admire, tells me that she first studies the depth and contrasts, then decides on her colors and draws the basic shapes. “As I paint, I work on the details while keeping in my mind’s eye the big picture.” Sandy chooses watercolor on purpose. With oils and acrylics, she could paint over mistakes. “If an error happens in watercolors, you have to go with it and work it into the painting.”
Due to rising costs of cotton, Sandy now mostly quilts for family or close friends. First, she color organizes all her chosen fabrics in order of values from light to dark. Some nights she doesn’t sleep, but takes out all her fabrics and refolds them. She uses colors that the person getting it likes. “I think of the person I'm giving it to from the moment I start to the very last stitch. I pour love into the quilt for that person and when I'm done, I feel very close to them.”
I treasure the necklace my friend Betty from Massachusetts made for me with aqua, turquoise, and silver beads. While she does do string beading, Betty’s forte is double spiral beaded rope necklaces with size 11 glass beads. She also does wire wrapping of gemstones. Sometimes in the middle of the night she wants to know how the wire wrapping will turn out.
Betty has a basket of unfinished pieces. The beading is finished but not the clasp.
I have unfinished short stories without the last sentence or a title. I have a basket of journals I abandoned for some reason. Looking at their last pages, I see that I usually have stopped mid paragraph, not knowing what comes next. I save images on greeting cards. In a blue composition book, I save quotations from Robin Williams, Eleanor Roosevelt, Anne Lamont, and bell hooks. On sticky notes and 3 by 5 cards, I write down key phrases, new words and ideas I see and hear. People in the mountains of NC grew up eating persimmon pudding every day. Cornel West says that “if you are poor and can’t pay your light bill, we are all black in the dark.” Gayle Bluebird asks, “Does my soul show like a too long petticoat?”
Sometimes I picture a character focused on one of these thoughts. What does it mean to them? Does it haunt them in the night? What is their name? Who do they love? Who are they afraid of? Where are they now? With writing we collect memories, images and strangers’ stories and put them in conversation to see what direction the voices might take.
Do you have a stash of materials somewhere?
What have you been thinking about making?
Look through your stash.
Imagine and enjoy the possibilities.