Recalling Moments of Creation

December 6 – Make. What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it? (Author: Gretchen Rubin)

I was sure that there wasn't anything I had created this year, short of a bunch of academic papers -- how do you quantify the materials used for that??

But, then, a fb friend began posting some really old photos of his family today, and I realized, I had, indeed, created something this year.

For my brother's 50th birthday, back in May, I was tasked, as I generally am, with making a book for collecting memories.

First, I had to choose just the right book ... so, off to Barnes and Noble to peruse their journal type books. I wanted something sturdy and pretty but masculine enough that my brother wouldn't balk. Of course, I was also interested in something that wouldn't break my poor graduate student wallet.

Then, I went through my mother's mounds of photographs. She is terrible about putting photos into albums, but she keeps them all in the same general vicinity. I took down the huge box of photos and started my treasure hunt.

It was, as always, a ton of fun to look through photos. Since he is the oldest, I found a ton from the first few years of his life, but then they started to get more sparse. I was able, however, to piece together a fine collection that spanned his entire life, including his wife and two kids.

Next, I arranged them in the book with photo corners and did a little calligraphy on the first page and around the pictures.

My final task was to hound people at the party to write in their reflections. Some people found photos of themselves and signed it, others actually wrote stories about my brother. Having the pictures as a prompt was helpful to get people to remember funny stories... but almost everyone balked at actually writing them.

I don't know how many we got, but all in all it was a pretty good 50th birthday present.

I also scanned all the pictures before I put them in the book, so we are not losing them as part of the overall collection, and now everyone can have a copy. Since there are five of us, this is really a better way to distribute them.

The project that is waiting for me to have time is a quilt... actually there are two quilts that I want to make and am actively collecting the materials.

One is a jeans quilt. I have a ways to go before I have enough used denim, but I continue to collect and ask other people to contribute.

The other one is a t-shirt quilt. Believe it or not, the idea for these quilts came separately and they are not meant to go together, but perhaps they will end up just being one quilt... t-shirts on one side and jeans on the other. Who knows?

The t-shirt quilt is my idea for what to do with the many t-shirts I have that I don't wear, but that I don't want to give up. Some are concert t-shirts, but most of them are associated with a volunteer project or a run. I probably have enough of these t-shirts to make them, but now I just don't have the time... it will have to be done in stages. If I can decide on the size of the squares, I will go ahead and cut the t-shirts up as stage one -- next summer.