week 44 in my “this is where i am from” year long project:

My Mother’s sewing machine. A White Rotary, I think it was a wedding present. It’s the machine I watched her sew curtains and clothes and dolls and toys on. It’s the machine I learned to sew on and it’s the machine I sew on today.  And because it’s almost Halloween I’ll tell you a spooky and entirely true story about it:

In December of 2006 I had just begun my solo enterprise – I had lots of orders and deadlines and on the eve of one of those very important deadlines I was still  sewing furiously  very late  at night.  With a long way still to go the machine suddenly  stopped and a chunk of metal rocketed past my face.  I found it across the room –  an essential part of the machine – no sewing without it – and it was broken. I tried to fix it but nothing worked.  I have a drawer full of bits and pieces that I saved from my Father’s workshop, things I used in dioramas and assemblages – bits of metal and rubber, knobs, washers, gears, springs etc.  I thought maybe I could cobble some temporary solution together from those.  Another hour of frustration  and  no luck at all.  Exhausted, defeated and ready to give up I pushed the drawer closed and it stuck halfway, I pushed again and it stuck again, I pulled and it stuck. I gave a great big angry  pull and the drawer flew out and what had caused it to stick also  flew out and landed in my lap: to my amazement and disbelief it was a replacement for the broken sewing machine part – the exact part – identical but for the color. Not similar, not “good enough” the EXACT PART in perfect condition. I snapped it in and it worked beautifully, that night and all the nights and days that have followed.

The End.

week 43 in my “this is where i am from” year long project:

I’ve been thinking about my Mother’s treasures lately. This tiny perfume bottle had real gold flecks floating in the fragrance – you could shake it like a snow globe and they would swirl around.

week 42 in my “this is where i am from” year long project:

week 41 in my “this is where i am from” year long project: I remember when I was 10 or so,  alone in my room,  noticing that  I was experiencing an exquisite moment.  I was lying on my  bed reading Anne of Greene Gables.  It was late in the day on a Sunday and almost to cold too have the window open- but not quite.

week 39 in my “this is where i am from” year long project:

I loved halloween. I loved making costumes and my most favorite of all was  my big fig newton costume – I was 10 or 11. I spent weeks working  on it.  The fabric was shimmery and I learned the song and the dance (note the jazz hands).  So much fun to make but not so much fun to wear – it was pretty awkward and  it rained on halloween that year so I was a soggy, cold, uncomfortable newton.

week 37 in my “this is where i am from” year long project:

In the winter of 1976 I had occasion to have dinner with a large group of fully outfitted revolutionary war enthusiasts and re-enactors. I had on plaid russet colored polyester and acrylic elastic waist pants and a slightly shimmery blue polyester shirt with a giant collar that I bought with my own money. It all felt pretty awkward. There was a particularly excruciatingly long moment where I had to stand on the little town hall stage and have my picture taken. I remember wondering “how much worse is this going to get?” and wishing the little stage would swallow me up, and being super into the dudes in costumes. Being 11 is no joke.