Learning by Doing, OR Quilting with My Grandma

I've arrived in Wisconsin, er, well, I arrived in Wisconsin last Thursday, but I've been quite busy with My grandma running errands, visiting Culver's, watching Kiley sing, singing in church, AND scheming up a project.

I'm QUILTING!  It's a baby step, a table runner, but I drew it, colored it, and am doing as much of it as I can.  I told my grandma, though she'll probably get a lot of laughs out of trying to teach me.  Even in the beginning, I thought that knowing how to sew was at least one part I had under my belt.  As my grandma too care to mention all of the details of cutting, pinning, sewing, and planning, I tried to soak in every detail, but like a toddler taking her first steps alone, I wanted to keep looking back as if to ask for help as I went to put in the first stitches. 

Trying to muster up as much confidence as I could, I sewed together my first two pieces.  Ironically, Grandma Sherian reminded me of one of my favorite quotes that she has passed down to me from her mother, my Grandma Pauline, "Just remember, never sew anything hat you are not willing to pull out later."  I slowly finished connecting my first two pieces as she worked to get lunch ready yesterday.  When I pulled the fabric away from the needle, however, it looked HORRIBLE.  Something wasn't quite right.  As I began to rip out the seam, (even this I had forgotten the easiest way to do), my grandma came over to help me.  "You forgot to put the presser foot down," she half laughed and expertly pointed out.  She knew just what the problem was.  It was something so simple, yet so crucial.

Like embarking on my sewing project, my last few hours at home were filled with looking back before shakily trying to take my own steps.  I wanted to pack my own bags, but I wanted my dad's help.  I didn't want to weigh them til they were fully packed, but one of my bags ended up being grossly overweight at the airport.  I wanted to be ready to leave, but I knew I'd miss home and pulling away was the hardest part.  I tried to be tough, I tried to seem grown up and ready to leave, but I was freaking out about so many things that I wasn't quite fair to the people around me.  I wanted to see everyone, I wanted my time away to be significant an important, but what I really needed was to tell more than my blog readers how I felt.

Things have gotten better now that I'm in Wisconsin, as Andee put it, "halfway to Chile."  I've had many vivid and slightly tormenting dreams as my subconscious tries to process the change that my conscious is trying to "tough guy" out of.  I already miss everyone.  I know that I'm being pretty bad on the communication right now, but I'm still processing.  My fears, my hopes, my dreams are all coming back to me as pieces, and with the help of my grandma's antique Singer and the environment of my old home town, I'm piecing them together.