She had just pulled a baby quilt top off of the sewing machine. We looked over her corner matching. It was flawless. Better than mine. I oohed and aahed over her work. Pickle beamed. She chatted excitedly about the new little nephew or niece baby she was making this for, and the next one she would start.
She had labored over her fabric choices at the store, for what felt like eternity and a half to the chagrin of the younger, less-enthusiastic-about-miles-of-fabric-bolts Pickles. She had arrived with a pattern plan, with coupons in tow, and her budget in mind. Eventually the stack of enticing fabric selections was whittled down to the favored few and was bustled over to the cutting table, much to the audible-sigh-of-relief from the fore-mentioned younger Pickles, all completely nearly wasted away by this time.
At home she laundered the fabrics, ironed them, and dutifully cut her pieces. Stitching. Ironing. Layering and binding. It was a several day process. For a blanket no bigger than a yardstick.
In the midst of the process, she asked, is it a better value to make things ourselves instead of buying it already made? Is it a better deal? Is it cheaper? If not, why do we make it ourselves?
That's kind of a hard one.
If you are looking at the dollar value only, no. Not at all. We can and do make many things to economize, to save money, to use what we have. But not always does it work that way. Sometimes it might cost a little more than it might have if we had purchased it off of the shelf of a department store. And we do that quite often. And it's totally valid to do so.
But when it comes to making something ourselves, it is no longer just the item, or the price of the item in the equation.
It's a compilation of hopes.
It's about the person it was created for.
It is the gift and investment of time itself, a commodity once spent that can never be regained.
It's the growth in ourselves as we create ideas, formulate plans, bring them to fruition through trial, error and hopefully, eventual triumph.
It's a journey of learning, of problem-solving, of creating, of accomplishment.
And at completion,
It holds a piece of us.
So if you are looking at the fingerprint of our heart and time and love that are stitched, ironed, and bound into each creation, then you'll see that's why we sometimes choose to make it ourselves.
Or my answer was something like that.
I'm pretty sure we may have picked up fast food for dinner that night.
Always be creative,
Marie Winfield