My Grandmother liked to make puppets. She would work with kids in her small town (in Ontario) and put on whole puppet shows. They built the stage, sets, costumes, wrote plays and of course they made masses of puppets. There were different kinds, not just sock puppets. Some you put your hand inside and the more elaborate puppets came with strings attached. If we got to look at the puppets she would go on and on about how careful we were when handling the puppets with strings.

My Mother and I liked to sew together, we still do, in between her snowbird trips to Florida. We make seasonal decorations, Halloween costumes for my sister’s kids and we made old fashioned rag dolls, like Raggedy Ann. I still have the very first Raggedy Ann she made for me when I was a kid. The doll has grey hair. She still regrets that but at the time she was being thrifty, using up extra yarn from some other crafty project.

I still like sewing. When I was married my Mother treated me to a good quality sewing machine. I did start using it but have not done much. I like the hand sewing best. I embroider, I crochet (though it’s not quite the same as sewing) and I like quilting. I would really like to spend a lot more time working out how to use that machine and working on sewing projects in general. It is such a great hobby. So nice to have something lovely or practical to show for your time at the end. Best of all was working together, sewing with family.

I’m going to see what local groups I can find now that I’m living in the big city and my Mother is snowbirding till at least May. I have tons of fabric and yarn stashed around here and there to use up. Maybe I will create my own version of the grey-haired Raggedy Ann doll.

[tags]sewing, stitch, needlework, dolls, puppets[/tags]