The jacket is done, the entry is sent, and now I wait to see if my idea that became a reality is accepted for the show.
The assembling of the leaves on the fabric began with great gusto. I finished one side only to realize I had very few leaves left for the rest of the vineyard, the ground would be bare! Decision time, and really no choice. So out comes the seam ripper, and take off all the leaves I'd so carefully attached by hand. I start by counting and stacking the leaves so I'll be sure to have enough for 2 sides this time, and then get the sewing machine ready. Once attaching these slippery things by hand is enough. Practicality rears it's wise head!
The look is different than the chubby version I started with, it's much more airy and almost fairy like. I like it. Next I stitch a few glass beads over the machine stitching that shows, that adds a little sparkle and is a good disguise for the machine work. ( One of my mottos is if you can't hide your mistakes, then make them a "design decision".) A few strings of round glass "grape" beads here and there and the jacket is almost done.
I put this all together, then hem, hem, hem. The finished jacket really pleases me, and pretty much fulfills my dream piece. Chris takes the pictures, Toni adds the name, and Wayne pats my back and tells me I've done a good job. Now I wait. If "Of the Vine" is not accepted for this show, I still have a beautiful one of a kind creation that I'm proud of, and I've brought one dream to reality1
"Of the Vine" Jacket
ReplyDeleteLovely.
ReplyDeleteI think it turned out really well. Sorry to hear it wasn't accepted into the show. They certainly are missing out.
ReplyDeleteHere it is, two years down the road! The "vine" jacket was sold, and lots has happened in between So I'll just start where I am, today.
ReplyDeleteThis last winter was a long one, one problem after another. Health not great, Wayne's health not great for the first time ever. House problems. Car problems. But then I look around, and we're still very much in the here, still very much together, still laughing! So how bad can things be?!
The one thing that bothers me is what is happening to my body. I'm so surprised at every change, and only one thing has been for the better. My hair, of all things. More white has come in, and for a dishwater blonde, that's a good thing. And best of all, for no known reason, my hair is curly again, after 70 years of no curls. I have no idea why, but every day when I look in the mirror , it's still curly! This is a gift I wasn't expecting, but I sure enjoy it. And every silver curl makes it look shinier, a bonus!
The rest of me has sagged, in places I didn't know I had places! Every scar, every little ripple has become a place to hide notes for the future, sandwiched between skin and skin. There are some places that entire books could be carried, secretly stashed in the rolls. How awful, and what a surprise! No one tells you that your youthful -for- many -years body will betray you, that somehow you'll wake up and look in that department store mirror and not recognize the surprise that is you. How did this happen? Did I sleep on my skin and fat wrong? Did someone come in and push things around until I don't see the woman I thought I was? The other part of this is the apology I owe to the women I once chuckled at , I am so sorry. I am now you.
The good thing is I can't go back, I can't change what has happened. Because I do look fine, and my body works. My arms may have attachments that wave in the breeze, and My stomach may need the support of fat women's elastic jeans, but my heart is still 40, and my head still know this is much better than the alternative. So! I'm trying to learn to love my handles, to dress to hide them, and to diet to lose them. None of these things are easy, but luckily I have the time to try, and the good sense to laugh at myself in the process. Life is a series of unrelated events sometimes, but it is still exciting, and fulfilling, and worth the bother.
Haven't been here for a long long while, and yet again, a lot has happened. A year ago I got up in the night to get some cough medicine, my hacking woke me up. Went to the kitchen, turned on the light, and found what I was looking for. Headed back to bed, went back and turned out the kitchen light, and for an unknown reason, turned one doorway too soon, and stepped off into nothing. Instead of being in the doorway to the bedroom, I stepped into the nothing of the stairway. Crashed down, trying to grab the rail to slow things down, and all I grabbed was a swimsuit hanging on the wall! I landed face down at the bottom, smashed my head against the door frame, and felt the worst pain I have ever felt. I thought I had broken my back or my neck, and I couldn't move, only groan. Wayne heard the clammer and came looking for me, but couldn't find me. He asked "where are you?", and I hollered "down here, I think I'm broken!"
ReplyDeleteHe rushed down the stairs, but I was afraid of him touching me. All he saw was the blood from my forehead and a crumpled up body. He called 911, and stayed by me until the fire department got there. By then I had sat up, still in that little spot between stairs and door. The EMT's checked me over enough to know I hadn't broken my neck, and put a neck brace on me that relieved some of the pressure. They couldn't bring me up on a gurney, either outdoors or in due to the steepness of the stairs. They suggested I sit in a chair, and they carry me up that way, but for some reason, that was not a good idea to me. I told them my legs were fine, so they stood me up and sandwiched me between them for the hike up the stairs. Then on to a gurney at last, and into the ambulance headed for the hospital.
I was so lucky I didn't have a concussion, I broke a tiny bone in my neck , and sprained or stretched all the ligaments in my neck. My blood came from a split on my forehead, and I skinned my cheeks and nose on the floor when I landed.
A long day in the hospital, got my first stitches ever on my forehead, a horrible stiff brace for my neck, and bruises that continued to show up for a week. I have healed fine, barely a scar on my face, and evidently the bone I broke wasn't important. It took a long time for the neck pain to go away, and a long 3 weeks in the horrible brace. Which did it's job, in spite of me. I was careful to walk in the other side of the hallway, away from those wicked stairs, for a few weeks, and we put in a night light in the hall.
The funny thing is that I no longer have to get up in the night to go to the bathroom, which I had been doing for the last three years or so. Weird! The sad thing is, the fall shook up my brain as well as my body, and my thinking has not been what it had been. My thought processes are better than they were, it's now a year since I fell. So things are healing.
We are living in a sci-fi novel. Our house, our neighborhood, our world is in lock down. We are faced every day with an upside down distorted way of living, with no clear end in sight. It's like being in a darkened movie theater with no light on except the one pointing to "exit".
ReplyDeleteI hear the young neighborhood kids, and rush out to hear and feel their laughter. It fills me with happiness, their young voices so carefree and glad to breath fresh air, riding their bikes up and down the road with abandon. A reminder that the world we live in now is not forever, forever is in a child's smile, a ride down the hill with no hands, sun on a face, a Spring flower in bloom. A reminder that tomorrow will come again, life continues even in a different very scary form. Another day. Get out of your p.j.s and get on with it!