There was a slight shift in my breathing this weekend, as I settled into a few projects here at home. The first few weeks of this whole thing felt like a frantic flurry of activity and anxiety. Getting my boy home from the other side of the country and sorting out logistics with the college. Tucking all the younger children into their home learning worlds, dissecting the beautiful curriculum sent home from their teachers and pulling out the parts and pieces that are going to work for us. Sorting out the technology here at home so that all of us can work and learn with speed. The giant worry and stress of owning a small business and having employees, and then the ensuing pile of paperwork to gather and loan documents to submit. Wondering if Steve would still have a job (for now, yes, his job is 'essential'). And of course, worry about my parents - a bit on the vulnerable side - and our friends - on the frontlines and in the weeds of small businesses too. And oh, so much more. I mean, the whole world! It's been a lot, hasn't it?
And of course, none of that is close to over. There's still so much difficulty to come, and come it will. But there seems to be less for me to do about it, for right now anyway. We are lucky enough to have a home spacious enough for us all and wide open woods in which to safely roam. And with a lot of the 'getting settled into this new rhythm' behind us, we can do just that a little bit. Settle into home.
I warmed up the machine with a giant pile of face masks, as one does these days. One for every single person I could find to give one to because that felt so therapeutic. And then some to donate as well. But then my mind and crafty fingers started to wander...and wonder. Digging deep under my sewing table I found the piles of three-inch squares, each in paper bags with my three youngest children's names on them, cut and stashed many years ago now. The baby clothes quilts! Yes!
(You can see Calvin's here. And Ezra's here. Oh my gosh those archives are a dangerous rabbit hole for me to enter! That Ezzie of mine turns 17 tomorrow! In a blink!)
As it happens (especially when you decide to binge the entirety of Cheer in one evening), the quilt blocks came together in no time at all. I decided, for Adelaide, to break up all the color chaos with white squares, which I think I love. And truly, just like the last two times I've done this project - and perhaps even more so now because of the emotion in the air - it was a walk down memory lane, remembering so many moments from her early years, prompted by the fabric of the clothes she was wearing! I also had a little moment of realizing just how many of the clothes she wore, I actually made myself. Hey, I did that! (Wink, wink.)
The blocks are all neatly stacked now and ready for piecing together when I can get back to it, which I anticipate to be soon, because, well...home. But I got pulled aside, as my time at the sewing machine put out the beacon for all to join. And so the next day was spent setting up yet another folding table in another corner of our house (seriously with the table surfaces right now, it's nuts), to set up the second sewing machine for my little sewists. Scrunchies, pillows and dolls clothes are on the list and flying off this machine like nobody's business.
Three cheers for silver linings!