If It Is Tuesday...

One of the things I looked for today was more of the muslin scraps so I could get my project ready to take with me to MN in June. I love embroidering and so have had more than a few projects over the years. I did find it eventually.

I am testing out this stabilizer that is a peel and stick stuff. You print the embroidery pattern on one side and then attach it to the muslin. It is supposed to wash out. Maybe it works. However, I am only going to do one set in case it doesn't. 

Anyway, I climbed my step ladder, reached into the back of the closet and took down some of the small containers that were stacked there. I did find what I was looking for, and once again sorted. I pressed an 8" strip of muslin, and attached three of the patterns to it. One set ready.

I get to thinking all kinds of things when I do busy work, from family ties to health issues. I went outside and pulled a few more weeds, raked the damp soil and came inside to shower.

When a person gets to that certain age, the hype is that you will get this or that illness or disease if you do this or don't do that. These foods are good for you, these are ones to avoid. I've heard and read most of it. A lot of it is true. What I want to do with however many years or decades I have left is to live and do what I want or am able to do in spite of what the hype says. Someone hyphenated the word 'disease' as dis-ease and redefined it to mean without ease. I saw the value in that then and now. We can get sick when we are not at ease with life or comfortable with it.

I still want to do things that are more certain and in the moment, like embroidering on fabric that will make a good piece the way I want it to look. I still want to plan ahead, like taking a project with me to MN in case I have time that is open. I don't like being bored.

I know that our bodies break down from hard use and abuse over time. I know that we get mentally distracted, and emotionally changed. I know that our spirituality shifts. I know that we can become easy targets from those who would take advantage of our softening. Everything changes over time. Even with lab work, close examination, or being cut open to see the inner works, we cannot know everything happening with our bodies and how they work. We do the best we can for as long as we can.

Its like the fabric in my closet that has been around for awhile. The colors are different from what is in the stores because the dye lots change every year, as do the patterns and themes. Its not to say the fabric should get tossed, however, it takes planning to blend what is a bit older with with what is a bit newer.

I found one project that had no pattern in the 'kit', no note-to-self, nothing. And so it has become a new project, without a designated recipient or a finish date. I can see that a lot of it was pre-cut but do not know if I got those pre-cuts or cut them myself. No notes mean none, no idea where this project was headed.

So I started cutting with an idea in mind. Before I put it back in the container, I will write my notes-to-self and have some clarity.

If anything I know about myself is that forgetting isn't about aging and aging doesn't mean you will forget. The two can be about the same thing or not. I cannot guarantee that I will remember any of my projects without those notes. And I cannot guarantee that when I get to the projects with or without notes that I will want to work on them. Maybe that would be my dis-ease, my lack of comfort.