Getting around to it

No art to post yet for Art Every Day Month. I have been 'making', but just nothing worth sharing (maybe later in this post)...  I'm making a 'thing' and it isn't quite finished yet. It involves sewing which frankly is almost as unlikely an occurrence for a Lisa as Ronald McDonald becoming a vegetarian. Me and needles don't mix. Well, to be honest, it's not strictly the needles that's the problem - I'll happily take a flu jab or donate blood rather then sew on a button. No, the trouble with stitching and me tends to involve the thread and our little reisdent fae - the Knot Fairy. I do believe I've mentioned her before (and I understand that she has many siblings scattered in every corner of the globe). I'm sure you're familiar with the tangles appearing in strings and cables, cottons and cords seemingly by magic!

My parents have finally switched onto the online age and are regularly reading my blog - Hello! My Mum will no doubt be shaking her head in despair as she reads this and wondering what on earth happened to all those sewing lessons she gave me. Sorry Mum - I'm much better with a paintbrush!

A bit later...

Sew... where were we? Oh yes. My 'thing' and knotted cotton. I am blaming my chums at Inspiration Avenue for this one - you see they set a seamstress challenge and I felt obliged to leave the old comfort zone while still sticking to my mixed media roots. And this is what I came up with - this 'thing'. It consists of various layers of collage glued and sewn (yes, Mum, that's right... sewn!) together and topped with wax. The buttons are glued in the wax as this way they will be far more secure than if I had attempt to fasten with needle and thread. It's a kind of rebels' button box or maybe a 'round tuit'... one day I'll sew them back on the items they belong to...

It looks a bit like something my son would bring home from school as a present for Mother's Day - something cobbled together from bits and bobs from the craft box. Maybe I'll go back to drawing girl faces on book pages...

Do you really want to see it?

Here goes... don't say I didn't warn you!

Mixed Media 'Thing' with real sewing! That's the Knot Fairy in the middle. She was trying to unpick my stitching when she got stuck in the hot wax - that'll teach her!

A stitch in time...

I don't do sewing. My Mum probably thinks I'm a changeling since she was born with a needle and thread sewn into her fingers. It's strange though because for a time, when I was about 12, I actually used to embroider - from patterns and everything. I could perform an array of intricate stitches and I made my Sindy doll clothes that didn't fall apart. Then one day I woke up and my fingers must have grown overnight and become too gangling for fine stitchery (I have long fingers - terribly hard to find gloves to fit). Suddenly I couldn't even thread a needle. Sew on a button? You must be joking!

Once I started secondary school and we were let loose with electronic sewing machinery, things went from bad to worse. Was there perhaps some form of curse upon me? Why did the needles constantly snap? What made the fabric buckle up and, worst of all, why did I only need to look at a piece of cotton for it to become irrevocably tangled? I think my teacher finally gave up with me the day I tacked my nightdress to my school skirt. Tacking, that most basic of abilities, was clearly past the limit of my skill.

Things never improved as I aged. I do own a sewing kit - though when my Mum saw it I think she nearly passed out in shock. I think I paid £1 for it, 20 years ago. It hasn't been used much. It's pretty basic compared to her shipping trunk of supplies. It's interesting that men in my life automatically assume that because of my gender (and ability to knock up a three course dinner from the most basic of rations) that I am good at sewing. Any requests for invisible mending (or even just button sewing) are met with the most incredulous look and sudden attack of amnesia (rather like when you ask them to take the rubbish out or wash the floor).

Eventually though the sewing pile builds (especially since I have a six-year-old son) and I have to dig the needle out. Last night I sewed back on a hood and zip from a coat, a button and popper thing from my cardigan, the hem on a pair of trousers and the hook from my dressing gown.
True to form, mysterious knots formed in the cotton through no reason leaving large loops sticking out to get tangled and snagged and I managed to spear myself and break the scissors.

We wait with baited breath to see how long before they need repairing anew!

PS: I once dreamt that I found the needle in a haystack. Do you think that has any significance?