As a child, I would dream how my life would be as a wife and mother. I would have a lovely home filled with beautiful, handmade items. My children would all be dressed in clothes I made for them, clean and well behaved. My house would always run smoothly, be clean and I would have plenty of time for extra projects. I would have a drawer full of handmade linens that the children would choose from when they would set the table. I would send people lovely handmade gifts and cards.
Immediately after getting married I struggled to attain to the ideals I had made. I tried to have homemade desserts ready all the time, it only happened a few times. I started making curtains for my new home by hand, it took days to put in one hem. I would make gifts for people, only to give them months after the occasion. I have dozens of half made birthday cards and thank you notes, unsent. I even dyed a load of white towels pink on one of my first laundry days.
Years have passed and slowly I have changed how I view those ideals. I still desire a home that runs smoothly, but, instead of it just being that way, I look for ideas that streamline what needs to be done. Instead of hand stitching all of my curtains, I ran them through my mother-in-laws hemmer. When I do make a handmade gift, I choose something simpler. Instead of knitting an entire baby blanket, a piece of flannel with a crocheted edge will do just fine. I buy note cards now, a note sent is better than a half done one the person never sees. I don’t make many of my children’s clothes, but they can always look forward to a new pair of flannel pajama pants from me every Christmas Eve. Sometimes a simpler option will do.
I hand stitched the binding on the quilt on my oldest sons bed, the way it should have been done. I am already needing to redo it from all the washing and use. I really don’t have time right now to spend days hand stitching it just for it to happen again. I came up with a method of using a home sewing machine to sew the binding. It’s stronger, faster, and I now use this method on all my quilts except the really heirloom pieces. I can bind a baby quilt in 45 minutes!! I turned what I learned into a class on Skillshare showing how to use this technique. Check out the class and see what you think. (The link will give you three months of access to thousands of Skillshare classes for 99 cents).
My hope is that we don’t give up on our dreams, but that we change some of the details to make them more achievable.
Simpler and done is better than intricate and never finished.
