SQ Episode 033 - Back in Time
Posted in Uncategorized by scientificquilter on November 20th, 2011 In this show, we discuss how it is to go back in time, thinking of creative ideas that need flushing out, getting back to old projects, and thoughts about what would have happened if I went back in time and never got my first sewing machine.
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What would I change if I could go back in time… Question is how far back…. Back to the decisions my grand parents and parents made in coming to this country from Italy? That had a HUGE impact on my life. I often wonder what type of person I would be if I had grown up in Italy. For one thing, I would not have been a quilter. The village where my parents were raised was a farm community and the girl cousins do not do any type of sewing or artistic type activity. Basically they helped grow the food, grapes that were sold from the farm. One cousin helped run a vineyard that made a noted regional wine with her husband. Another helps her husband run a local restaurant / bar. Would I have gone into the medical field like I did here in the USA. Most nurses were sister and there were not a lot of advance education available for women in Italy at the time frame I grew up. Most of the girls grew up, got married, raised kids and worked in their husbands business. Sewing and quilting is not in their life-style. I do not think I would have wanted to change my grandparents and parents decision to come to the USA back in the 1930s.
Would I have changed my mom’s decision to get a job outside of the home when I was 14 years old ? She got a job as soon as my youngest brother was old enough to go to school full time. She learned to drive just so she could go to work after he went to school and be back by the time he got home. How did this impacted my being a quilter? She got jobs with interior designers who taught her how to make custom drapes for the home and business… You know the kind that were popular in the 50s and 60s… formal drapes with fancy pleated valences. She once made a drape set that went in a theater and was 30 feet in length and 70 feet across…. A lot of fabric! My sister and I use to help her hand stitch hems and sides of the drapes… our stitches got so good the interior designer who was very fussy could not tell which one of us sewed the hems and sides. It helped my sister and me earn pin money until we could get real jobs outside of the home. I especially liked it when I was in college, I could work at home sewing, do homework and still had a part time job. I loved to sew, learned a lot and made my own home-dec items, children’s clothes and heirloom sewing.
The only thing I would change was I would learn to quilt sooner. I did not start quilting till 2005 when I took my first quilting class. I had played with quilting along with other sewing prior but did not get serious until that first class. I then jumped into it and have never looked back. I like all types of quilting and just wish I had more time to work on my projects.
As for my projects…. do I want to go back in time do I ever want to go back in time with them to change them… yes often but I live with it and try to do better with the next quilt. I RE-PURPOSE my mistakes and UFO I do not plan to finish… I bring them to a group of charity quilters and let them finish them up. I try not to worry about regrets; I just try to keep active and keep learning about my favorite art/ craft.
Nonnie