Sewing By The Sea

I borrowed the title of this post from a nearby fabric shop that I recently became fascinated with after  I  came across an article written about this shop.  The article explains that it is run by the wives of some local fishermen.  In all the times we have driven by this shop I have never once stopped in, until this past Monday.  Turns out it is closed on Mondays.  But until I can make it there, I have built it up in my mind of what I may find inside.  Whenever I come across unusual sea-inspired fabric I'm like a kid in a candy store. 

I  have this romantic image of old steamer trunks filled with exotic fabrics carried by ancient seafaring vessels.  And of course there would be containers of exotic teas inside too.  I just love how these two fabrics look together, but I have yet to decide what to make with them.  Any ideas for me?   Keep in mind my skills are basic though.   

Several years ago I found a single linen napkin with an embroidered blue lobster that I kept even though it was badly stained thinking I would eventually think of something to do with it.  The other day I happened to  remember my blue lobster and decided it would go nicely on my new white hoodie.

After tacking it down with a few hand stitches to hold it in place, I headed to my sewing machine.  The fanciest stitch I ever do is a zigzag and I found out it needed several passes around to cover up my hand stitches.   It's not perfect, but I like it and most people would not ever get a look of it this close up anyway.  But here it is. 

Since I was on a roll, I remembered another fabric I had in my stash that I thought would make a nice strap cover for my camera.  Mind you, I have never made a camera strap cover before, but after looking at a few samples on-line I realized they were much narrower than than 5 inch width that would show all the pattern repeats of my fabric.  Below is the width I originally wanted, but it was way too wide for my camera. 

I ended up making it with a 2" width with the pattern wrapping around the strap.  Here it is on my camera.  I like it and it probably won't show all the grime from the elements that I constantly seem to drag my camera through everyday. 

But before I go I wanted to show you what a difference just one day of rain made here recently.  This is a scene from our harbor just before it began to rain the other day. 

The next day during our walk we saw all this ice!  The ice was from the more shallow coves and the rain caused it to break up and flow out of the coves. 

We didn't see any evidence of it left today, but I'm sure it was a challenge for the fisherman to get out to their boats when it first showed up!  Or, even for trunks of exotic fabric to make it safely into our harbor.  Sure glad it's gone!

Where Do You Find Inspiration?

This was in one of our lobster traps the other day. So I snapped a quick shot of this cheerful little creature before I released him back into the ocean.

Back home, I found fabric left over from another project, cut out a quick template using newspaper, pinned it onto the fabric, and with a quick zip on the sewing matchine, a little stuffing, a button for his belly . . .

and ta-da! . . . an accent pillow

Here's an inspirational poem I found on-line

Poem: “Starfish”Eleanor Lerman, from Our Post-Soviet History Unfolds.

This is what life does. It lets you walk up to the store to buy breakfast and the paper, on a stiff knee. It lets you choose the way you have your eggs, your coffee. Then it sits a fisherman down beside you at the counter who says, Last night, the channel was full of starfish. And you wonder, is this a message, finally, or just another day?

Life lets you take the dog for a walk down to the pond, where whole generations of biological processes are boiling beneath the mud. Reeds speak to you of the natural world: they whisper, they sing. And herons pass by. Are you old enough to appreciate the moment? Too old? There is movement beneath the water, but it may be nothing. There may be nothing going on.
And then life suggests that you remember the years you ran around, the years you developed a shocking lifestyle, advocated careless abandon, owned a chilly heart. Upon reflection, you are genuinely surprised to find how quiet you have become. And then life lets you go home to think about all this. Which you do, for quite a long time. Later, you wake up beside your old love, the one who never had any conditions, the one who waited you out. This is life’s way of letting you know that you are lucky. (It won’t give you smart or brave, so you’ll have to settle for lucky.) Because you were born at a good time. Because you were able to listen when people spoke to you. Because you stopped when you should have and started again. So life lets you have a sandwich, and pie for your late night dessert. (Pie for the dog, as well.) And then life sends you back to bed, to dreamland, while outside, the starfish drift through the channel, with smiles on their starry faces as they head out to deep water, to the far and boundless sea.

– Quinn McDonald is a writer and creativity coach. See her work at QuinnCreative.com