KEEPING BUSY DIANE'S WAY

Recently my husband came inside after spending hours working outside in the yard.  I, on the other hand, had spent hours in the house doing what I do best.  Now you may be wondering, what is that?  Guess he was wondering the same thing because he asked me what I had been doing all day.  My answer to that question was, "Oh, just puttering around in my sewing room, doing this and that."  And to that he replied, "Well, you're very good at keeping yourself busy."

I don't think I've ever had a day where I've been bored silly.  In fact it seems like I always have an endless list of things needing to be done.  Grant you some of those things that need my attention fall into the category I refer to as "work." They are those chores that require some effort and offer no pleasure.  Then there are the other things that need to be done and I refer to those as "enjoyable."  The effort they require is of a creative nature so of course they are always at the top of my so-called "to-do" list.

And that brings me back to my day spent "puttering around" in my sewing room.  I do an awful lot of that.  Some days I have accomplished a lot, other days not so much.  But it's ok if that happens.  I decided to look up the meaning of puttering since I've always liked that word.  It just sounds better than saying "I was just messing around today," which was one of the synonyms I found in my Webster's thesaurus (yes, I actually do use one of those).  My Webster's dictionary (use that too) says "to busy or occupy oneself in a leisurely, casual, or ineffective manner."  I will agree to that meaning describing what I do except for the "ineffective manner" part.  And the best description I found on good old Google was from a blog I read that said, "puttering is the art of passing time staying "busy" but without a set agenda."

Here is an example of what I recently did on a day of puttering around:

I had a very nice white t-shirt that was fairly new when I discovered that it had acquired a few orange stains right on the front in a very strategic place.  I decided to do something creative to camouflage the stains but the t-shirt hung in my closet for many months while I thought about exactly what I would do.  I finally decided to stencil the front and perhaps add some doodles with ink too.  But then I got the bright idea to add some kind of an artistic appliqué.  I sketched out a design and kept altering it until it was the right size to cover the stains.  I used a piece of fabric I bought in Guatemala and ironed fusible onto the back, traced the design and cut it out.  I laid it across the t-shirt top and it looked much too large and bold.  So I cut it into quarters, fused it on, and zigzagged the edges.  Next came the lavender rickrack I already had and the large button.  I like the result and the stains are definitely covered!

Another couple of days were spent making one of my girlfriends a few homemade gifts for her birthday this year.  I didn't have any patterns for the things I decided to make, but I figured that wouldn't be an issue.  So the first item I made was a small trash container to put next to her sewing machine.  My friend, Debbie Peterson, recently made one for me when I went to Asilomar and I just love it.  I was able to utilize my collection of selvage strips too, which is what Debbie did.  I sewed the strips onto a piece of stabilizer and then squared that up to the size I wanted to make the trash container.  

The second item I made was a small storage pouch, which is always useful to take to retreats or classes.

And the third item I made was the most difficult without a pattern, but I finally managed to get it done.  If you untie the corners it lies flat for packing in a bag.  Anything that might roll off a table can be kept secure inside it.

The moral of this story is not to worry about spending a day "puttering around" as long as it keeps you busy.  You just never know what you might get done that day.