WFMW - Hand Work

What is fantastic way to keep active and get stuff done while still playing/ being with your children? Handwork. Handwork makes tv time, playgroup time, any sort of hanging out tim e productive time. It is the ultimate in multi-tasking. I learned to knit from my grandmother when I was a child. I learned to crochet my final year in Hebrew school from the rabbi’s wife. I started doing counted cross-stitch as college student when I wanted to paint picture but lacked skill as an artist. There is a beautiful picture of an angel watching over a sleeping child hanging over my child’s bed. I made it long before she was ever conceive d.

I cannot knit or crochet any longer. Carpel Tunnel has taken its toll on my hands. I miss knitting terribly. As my ability to do these forms of handwork went down I looked for others. I have quilted since college but most of the piecing is done on the machine and that hand quilting is done in a huge frame. So this lack of portability takes it out of the realm of what I consider handwork. Then I discovered appliqué. And fell in love as I did when I made my first crocheted kippah.

Applique is extremely portable once it is prepped. I use a freezer paper method which keeps all the little pieces flat and turned under while waiting to be attached. It is pretty mindless and attention-light which is a critical component for me. I need to be able to do my handwork while carrying on a conversation and watching an active roaming preschooler at the playground.

All my friends are used to me dragging a ziploc bag filled with fabric bits around. It has been the same project for so long. It is a Hanukkah banner. One of the children at the park insisted I put it away because Hanukkah was over. "It is for next year" I told her. On Friday, I finished the lastof the applique for the project. I don't have completed pictures since I still need to piece the border and quilt it but soon we will have a new applique project to introduce to all the friends who have watched this one grow.

So whatever form of handwork you choose, do it everywhere, do it often and share it with the children in your life. Then they too will have a lovely product way to multitask and create works of art.