Comfort Craft for the Pandemic

It was just about a year ago, right around my birthday. The year was 2020, we were in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. With the state lockdown and stay at home order, there could be no big party, no restaurant celebration, no visit with childhood friends. Hey friends, Sarah and Rachael, might you join me, Beth, in trying something new? Let's have a Zoom chat, just for fun!

We gave it a try. As Sarah is a teacher, she had a Zoom account that we could use. So she, Rachael and I found comfy spots at our homes in three different towns, grabbed our laptops, and Zoomed to success. That first meeting was nearly 5 1/2 hours! It could have been longer, but it was time to head to bed as we had to work the next morning. What, asked husbands and children, could we possibly have talked about for that long? When friends have known each other for decades, there is always more to say! Definitely, we would have to try this again sometime.

During the pandemic, I'd been reading a lot about how people were coping through quarantine, adjusting to isolation, establishing their pods. We all heard about people learning new languages, gardening, cleaning out closets, painting living rooms, and achieving all types of personal goals. And other people who were watching a lot of TV, which is also quite fine. And there were those who returned to former hobbies, things enjoyed in the past yet set aside during busier times. Like comfort food, these were comfort activities.

If we were going to Zoom again, we asked each other, should we do something else at the same time? Why sit with idle hands when we were all crafters? As working moms, multi-tasking had become common in our busy daily lives. Of course we could talk and do a craft! The three of us even had a common history with crafts, so this was a fine chance to do some reminiscing about the good old days.

Back in eighth grade, we had an elective class in embroidery. Mrs. Makay, Eddie's mother, taught it. She brought in some canvas cloth and yarn, and we mastered the basic stitches. Back stitch, split stitch, satin stitch. Then the trickier ones: blanket stitch, lazy daisy, French knot. Soon we had mastered these on our rough little samplers, and we were able to move onto a closer-woven fabric pulled taut with a hoop and stitched with cotton embroidery floss in all sorts of beautiful and fantastic patterns. We didn't buy embroidery kits, but we had TG&Y, our local 5 & 10 Store. TG&Y had a small fabric department with a rack of DMC floss in an array of eye-catching colors. Oh, the possibilities!

Since that long-ago class, each of us had done many sewing projects. Some were from kits, others from patterns, sometimes stitched on the legs of our blue jeans. Of course we always saved the leftover floss. I had my basket of patterns and my accordion-like tiered sewing cabinet with a rainbow of embroidery floss. Each hue was tucked into a plastic bag, colored threads from light to dark. The green bag went from the lightest mint to the deepest forest, the violets from the palest lavender to the boldest royal purple. We vowed to dig into our stashes and reconvene on Zoom the following week.

I looked through my things over the next few days, and offered some of my kits to my friends. I sent two kits to each of them, as each had a daughter that was interested in participating. Yet neither did join us, maybe we were too intimidating with our nonstop chatter!

I decided to start on some small Christmas kits - cross-stitch poinsettias and snowmen, and an embroidery "Noël" with holly leaves. It was July, maybe I could finish all four projects before the holidays. Sarah decided to work on a cross-stitch to use as an insert in the cover of holiday photo album. Rachael had been doing some crochet projects, but if we were going to sew, she thought she might do that too. She started a Santa Claus cross-stitch.

We settled into a regular Thursday night Sewing Zoom. The routine was 7 p.m. until 9:30ish, with the occasional move to another night if our schedules demanded a change. Surely, thought our families, we would be done with this soon. As we used to say when we were kids, "Au contraire, Pierre!"

One year later, I am writing this story in July 2021. During this year, I finished my four holiday projects. Then I completed a cross-stitch kit featuring a lovely pair of red hibiscus flowers with a hummingbird, neatly displayed in a white wooden frame. A new sampler is now underway, although I've changed the terra cotta floss for a rich burgundy, DMC #815. When working a kit, I like to exercise my imagination and switch out colors and vary the stitches.

Sarah finished her photo album insert, and then did another insert for a second photo album. Next, it was time for her to pick up a nautical sampler which she had started decades ago. Her precise work illustrates a clipper ship, whale, compass, flags, and an inspirational saying, all bordered by an intricate rope design. To finish the waves, she had to head to the store to get a little more of sea green DMC #367. What a relief to know that even though her kit was old, the colors are steadfast and available. Now Sarah's planning a trip to the fabric store to get inspiration for her next project. Thinking about patterns, looking at the colors, and imagining the possibilities! As for Rachael, although she is still working on her Santa Claus cross-stitch kit, she has picked up another of her passions and has finished several pairs of bead-trimmed socks for a special little girl.

We missed a couple of meetings during the year, but for the most part, we had weekly sessions. Some nights were a little shorter than our average of two and a half hours, and some nights were a bit over three hours. We have jabbered and stitched for well over 100 hours!

We all agree that having the Zoom sessions has been incredibly helpful to us during the pandemic. Juggling the new normal - masks, schools, searching for accurate health information - it has been a blessing to be able to talk things through with dear friends. How was everyone coping?

We discussed all sorts of things. The different paths followed by Beth's college student kids, one finishing during summer school, the other opting to withdraw for a year, waiting to get back to in-person classes and science labs. Sarah's adjustment to teaching at home via Zoom, while her high schooler attended online classes in the other room. Rachael's experiences as a front-line worker with patients, wearing gloves, double-masks, and a face shield. Our anxiousness about non-COVID hospital visits by elderly parents. Sharing information about our vaccinations, our reactions to the shots, and our immense relief in receiving them. Fearing the worst when a sibling came down with COVID-19, and rejoicing when it proved to be a light case. Still a sad topic, we talk of friends and extended family members who will not vaccinate; we worry about protecting innocent little children. We mourned the death of colleagues from COVID-19. We pray for the end of the pandemic as we watch the rise of the delta variant.

Yet our sewing Zoom sessions were not all doom and gloom. There was a pandemic pregnancy, a healthy baby, postponed weddings rescheduled, shared recipes and hopes for the future, jokes and laughter. We celebrated life and love.

Next weekend, fully vaccinated and ready to get out, we will be gathering together for the first time since mid-2019. We will have a show and tell, pass around patterns and floss, and start with the next wave of creations. And there is always more to say!