My mom was from the Old School of women who believed that by nine or ten years of age, a girl should be able to knit, darn, mend and help with chores in the kitchen. Summer time was her time to really make use of what my brothers and I referred to as her “slave labor,” us! I had a best friend and our mothers allowed us to help one anothe with the BIG chores of each of our homes: washing the chandelier at my house and polishing the silver at her house.

The summer I was twelve, my mom, concerned that I wasn’t really advancing on my sewing, knitting and cooking expertise, suggested that we institute what she called The Tuesday Club. She suggested that I invite a couple of friends over on Tuesdays for the day. She would teach us to knit, guide us through making “baby doll pajamas” and help us with simple cooking. It was a clever ploy since probably, by myself, I would not have been open to learning those tasks. But with pals, everything becomes more fun. We baked bread, cut out patterns, dropped stitches and. . . giggled, and giggled!

That summer laid the scaffolding for creativity in my life. At the lowest ebbs, with new babies or new homes, in neighborhoods where I knew no one, in the loneliest time of my life, I’ve baked bread, taken on sewing projects or picked up new knitting. What moments of satisfaction and productivity my mom gave me more than fifty years ago. How did she know that by giving me “stitches” way back then, she’d be giving me stitches for all times?

Anyone can learn how. Check out the link:

http://www.ikatbag.com/2012/04/ikeas-new-sewing-machine.html

How about making this summer a “stitch in time” or maybe better, a time for stitches?

p.s. I think this would be sooooo fun to do with a group of girls!!!