A Year of Gratitude – July 25, 2024

I stitched together a bit of gratitude at the sewing machine today. With each stitch, I saw a basket take shape. It’s something I have watched nearly two thousand times, yet I am still amazed when it happens.

I watched as the fabric wrapped cording my daughter had prepared passed through my fingers.  It slipped between my hands to rest underneath the presser foot before the needle darted back and forth, leaving a zigzag stitch in pretty cornflower blue colored thread. That thread will hold this cording together tightly, helping me to make something that is both useful and beautiful.

I think of my maternal grandmother quite often as I sew. She was a finish seamstress. Her sewing was so precise, so even. There was nothing she couldn’t make with fabric and thread.

I don’t consider myself a seamstress because I am not one. I’m a maker and many of my goods are made at the sewing machine. But my sewing skills and the type of items I sew are vastly different from hers.

That’s okay. I used to feel bad that I wasn’t better at the sort of precision sewing she excelled at. Then I accepted that our styles of sewing and skills were different. In the end, I enjoy making things. So did she. My mother and daughter also do.

You could say that I come from a long line of family members on both sides that liked to make things. Some worked with needle and thread. Others worked with wood, some with food. Making is making, no matter what your medium is.

I’m grateful that I am a person who spends their days making things, fixing things, and creating things. It’s the sort of work that makes me happy, that allows me to share that happiness with others. I’m also grateful to come from a long line of makers and to be passing that on to the next generation.

This post is part of our A Year of Gratitude Series. You can find the introduction, inspiration, and entire year’s gratitude’s posts here.