When you have four weeks and you can't sew because you are plagued with a migraine, what do you do? The very thought of the sound of the sewing machine makes the stomach roil. Bending over the table to cut out patterns causes the head to pound. Trying to hand sew much of anything ends up in frustration because the eyes don't focus well and it's difficult to get those stitches just 'so' So sewing is just really not something to be done. So what does one do with all that time on one's hands, so to speak?
I had several totes full of quilting, crafting, and sewing magazines I'd been accumulating over the past few years, some I'd read, some I hadn't, but I knew that I wasn't going to be able to keep all of them at this point beause they were just taking up to much space. So, tote by tote, I brought them out to the living room or the library, whichever place I was hiding in at the time, and hour after hour, day after day, I methodically flipped through each magazine taking a hard look at the patterns within, deciding wither or not I would actually do the item or not.. If so, I gently tore that pages out, stapled them together and layed them into a pile, placing the rest of the magazine in a stack to be passed on to friends for them to go through and do the same.
It took probably two weeks of this kind of diligent determination and sheer boredom, but I am happy to say that now I can take the snipped sheets and file them away into appropriate folders for a day when I'm looking for a specific idea and whala! there it will be. NOW, I have this very large box of magazines that I'm waiting to get together with friends to divvy up with them because I know there are certain ones for each they will be interested in, while others will be more interested in some. and what THEY are not interested in, I have yet another friend who goes to a quilt class through Merced College and they eat those magazines up like nothing I've ever seen!. It's a marvelous method of recycling.
I now have more room under my sewing tables, it was a project I didn't know when I was going to get to, and it gave me something to do at a tie when I couldn't do much else. So I say it was time well spent even though I didn't get to do any sewing.
I will say, however, I made several ruffly scarves and knitted many baby caps to take to the pediatrics ward, so it wasn't all for naught! I have no migraine now, and I'm raring to go with the sewing again and can hardy wait! Once I get this antiquing out of my blood, I'll be ready to roll!
