Wednesday 9 October 2013

a new list


I started feeling my morning sickness fade early last week (Woohoo!), a few days out from the Olive Tree Market. I was SO thankful! And so, in the waiting room for my antenatal appointment, I started to write an excited list of what I wanted to get done before the big day. I have so many ideas of things I could make for great Christmas gifts. And most of the things I have for sale aren't in that easy "hand over your money" price bracket. And ladies wrap skirts! They sold so well in my shop earlier in the year. And people have been asking if make cushions. And kids bags! They'd make great little gifts and my kids love them...

"Jodi Godfrey?"

I put my pen down, slowed down my brain and went into my appointment. I answered all the usual questions and waited while the poor older midwife sloooowly typed everything into the computer. I looked at the breastfeeding posters on the walls that I recognised from the '90s when my mum was a midwife in the town where I grew up. I felt slightly uncomfortable with her calling me "Lovey." Then she pointed me over to the bed so she could find the baby's heartbeat. It was the day before our little one we lost earlier in the year would have been due. I stopped breathing so I could listen. After a few movements of the device, she found it, fast and strong, and moved away far too quickly.
We talked for a few moments longer and then she let me go.

I felt silly but the first thing to cross my mind when I heard that heartbeat was, "Oh, that's right! I'm having a baby!" Like it had only taken me 3 days without nausea to forget.


 On the bus ride home, I took out my list again. And I decided I needed to change the question from, "What would sell well?" to, "If you have only 6 months of sewing time before the 'wonderful chaos' descends, what would you like to make?" And as much as I'd love to be (or felt like I should be) one of those women so committed to their business, that the first answer they think of is kids' bags and pillows, my answers were very different.

I want to finish the quilt for our bed.
I want to make gifts for friends in our community who will graduate and leave at the end of the year.
I want to make some things for baby.
I want (Tim) to make new sofas (yes, you heard right!).
I want to replace the soft furnishings (curtains and bedding) we were given when we moved in, to make do, with colours that are really me.
And I really, really want to finish my Penny Sampler (which will also fulfil the goal of learning to paper-piece).



So instead of heading home and pulling out my novelty fabric, I went for my box set aside for my favourite Anna Maria Horner prints, which I'd started cutting into strips for these log cabins for our bed. I had this little hope that I could finish the quilt top to display at the market stall, but you know me. That was a tad unrealistic. Tim did however, give me that whole Friday, the day our baby had been due, to hide in the sewing room and play with colour. And I had time to think, to be thankful for this new heart inside me, for this new energy I'd been feeling, and of course, to be sad as well.

And then when I didn't meet my goal, I came up with the idea of displaying all my works in progress on this sheet behind my stall. And I think it looked even better than what I originally had in mind! And even though I still didn't have affordable knick knacks to sell, I did have wonderful conversations with lots of people about my quilts and blocks. It feels like getting a chance to have a little exhibition once a month in the sunshine!


So what about you? If you had six months left to sew, what would you make?

8 comments:

  1. Jodi I'm so happy for you and so proud too. Keep following your heart and make what feels right. Of course I would go all AMH so I'm right there with you!!!

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  2. What a wonderful post! I always enjoyed those quiet moments in the OB's office, sitting and listening to my baby's heartbeat. It was the same with all three children: magical and miraculous every time.

    If I had six months of glorious sewing time, I'd quilt, quilt, quilt. One for our bed, coordinating quilts for my girls, one for my dad and one for my mom. Hmmm... maybe I'd need more than six months!

    xoxo

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  3. I enjoyed reading this post as I could relate. Wonderful of your husband to give you the day. Good therapy in the sewing room. Happy you are feeling better. Don't overdo it though. Do you knit? I think if I had six months, I would make sure baby had a wee sweater and hat. Every baby needs a hat : )

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  4. Oh! I see on your work in progress wall that there are some orange peel blocks just like mine! I am so excited to see them there! I am using charm packs of bella solids in a variety of natural shades. The orange peels are assorted scraps. If I had only 6 months left to sew, I would finish that quilt. :)

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  5. You are so smart to put some of your thoughts and goals on the page, Jodi. I was just thinking yesterday that I need to be doing the same thing. A big project I'd love to get done is recovering two chairs in the girls' playroom. I have the fabric, I just don't have the time! :)

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  6. Oh wow your WIPs are beautiful! Love the strip one especially.

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  7. so good to stop and think. I really want to make quilts for my boys - so far I have been making gifts for everyone else and not for them. So now I am going to refocus and write my own list :-) Enjoy these days of no morning-sickness pregnancy - such a blessing :-)

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  8. What a great idea to put the sheet up with your works in progress! My favorite thing on your list is to make the quilt for your bed. That's one of those things that's easy to set aside, but it's a tangible way of cheering and nurturing yourself during this nesting time. And soon you'll be cuddling and nursing a new little one under it. =) Wonderful Chaos - that's a phrase I'm going to try to internalize in my imaginings of what might be.

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I so love your comments! I read all of them and reply when I can. If you don't hear back, I'm lost under a mound of scraps or outside jumping on the trampoline with the kids. Jodi. xx