Saturday, September 25, 2010

The Stars at Night

And at last, after many evenings of embroidery and one very long session of ironing and ironing and starching and stapling, the "Stars at Night" wall hanging is finally, well, hanging.


If you're not familiar with the song, it's one that Texan school children learn in Elementary school. Justin loves it because it involves clapping (the stars at night, are big and bright, clap clap clap clap, deep in the heart of Texas), and clapping means loud noises, one of his favourite things! I love it because it rhymes, and has stars and hearts in it.

I was reading this post recently about how some people are starters, and some are finishers. Well, I'm a finisher through and through. I really only start things so that I can get that lovely feeling of finishing them! And there was a point, a month or two ago, when I was wondering if I'd ever finish anything ever again. Days were full up with feeding and changing and cuddling the Tilly... all wonderful things, that I loved doing, but the finisher in me kept saying, "Well, those things will all need be done again in an hour's time... you haven't really accomplished anything."


Hence, this project. Each night, I could sew one felt letter onto the linen backdrop. Sometimes two got done, sometimes five, but there was always time for at least one. And I started to feel like myself again, like there was something in addition to the role of "mother". So, as well as reminding me to take in the beautiful night sky here in Texas, this little bit of sewing reminds me that there is time to squeeze a bit of creativity and colour into this new, Tilly-full stage of life.

7 comments:

Victoria said...

That is a pretty little rhyme, and a beautiful wall piece! It definitely looks like it took a lot of work, but it was worth it I think. :)

It's funny you mentioned starters and finishers - we had to take a bunch of personality tests recently and found out (among other interesting things) that I'm a finisher and my boyfriend is a starter. I suppose it works out well.

Cindy said...

What a beautiful wall hanging. I love all the colors. You have made so many wonderful things for your home.

Campbell Jane said...

Adorable! The baby & the artwork!
Blessings

Brittany, Ryan and Jackson said...

Love the song, but there are 4 claps in it, just wanted to make sure you knew so when you taught Tilly she was well informed! :)I still don't know where you find the time to do projects!

Red Red Completely Red said...

Ooh, thanks for the correction!

Loreal said...

Congrats on finishing! I love the story that goes along with it too, about how you took the time to do part of it each night, and how important it is to squeeze that part of yourself into being a mother =) Great post, very inspirational!

Jadyn said...

It's beautiful! What a great line and I love how it turned out. You are so inspiring - it's great to see how you take care of yourself in this stage of your life where it could be easy to let that slip. And it's great to see how you tackle a project and manage to finish it bit by bit. As you know - this is not my strenght...thanks for sharing how you do it. xoxo