Motherhood has consumed my immediate world. I’m out of touch not only on world politics and current events, but even the basic goings on in my own tiny community where gossip flows like a river in flood. Where if you so much as sneeze someone across town can be heard to say “bless you” - however - cut off and out of touch as I may be, my heart bursts with love and although born in a violent storm of lashing winds and pelting rain that bombarded us for days, Chicken Little has proved to be a calm little presence in my life.
Along with motherhood I’ve taken on another exciting new venture. They tell me that in the latter weeks of pregnancy that mothers-to-be with their cumbersome gait and swollen bellies are possessed with what is know as a “nesting” phase – where with a burst of previously unheard of energy women take to cleaning closets with a vengeance, purging unwanted things, tidying, and organizing along with cooking up a storm and otherwise preparing for the new family addition. Although excited by this prospect of energy, coupled with the desire and motivation for a clean home and freezer full of casseroles and baking… I waited in vain - this mysterious “nesting” phase never occurred.
Instead, as I applied drywall filler – patching a hole in the wall following the replacement of bathtub faucets I got the brilliant idea to take up a new hobby…. As if my half finished mural - pottery projects, watercolours, 3 partially painted acrylic canvases, an unfinished commissioned ink portrait (abandoned for the past 4 years), wrinkled silk only partially dyed, and bin filled with the horrific half melted disasters of my last attempt at making soap were not enough in terms of hobbies… This brilliant new idea involved investing yards of fabric and putting to use (towards something more substantial than hemming jeans) the sewing machine I inherited from my grandmother following her purchase of a much newer and fancier model. And so my first ever sewing project was conceived (hemming aside) a small rag quilt for my Chicken Little. (a project possibly stillborn before it could get off the ground….)
I’m not sure when I thought I would have time to cut fabric, or sew it into something appealing to the eye… let alone take the time required to get all the little corners to line up… but yesterday I found myself pushing Chicken Little in his stroller through a sprawling fabric store selecting flannels bedecked with images of same fish that fill my freezer, along with plaids, turtles and frogs. If anything ever materializes…I’ll post photos!
