To REWIND or not to REWIND. Spool Story number 5

I pluck a fat, old, dirt stained spool from the cookie jar. The thread is uneven  - much of it unthreaded over time and a bit of it rewound around the base.  THe top layer is a yellowed old dirty thread, the bottom is less dirty but not clean. it is off white but it is impossible to tell if once upon a time it was white.  The spool itself has no markings that are legible and the donut hole is cracked and jagged.
It is hard to imagine why it has not been discarded.  No seamstress would choose it for a new garment - even for a dolls dress.
I did not live through the depression - a time when this notion would be cherished and used for any number of things - darning, threading buttons back on, tying up found objects onto the window to catch the light or hanging Christmas ornaments - likely pine cones and acorns  - to a branch that had to do as the holiday tree.
I try to unravel the top layer but even it is a tangle. I think of the difficulty it would be to unravel it completely and rewind it. Could I? Should I ? What shall I do with it? It is no longer pretty. It is no longer practical. And yet, heading toward birthday number 67, it is hard to imagine simply tossing it.  Hmmmmm.

Sea Foam Green SPool Story number 4`

Sea Foam Green. It is really an ugly color.  And it never reminds me of the sea . It is a sickish, pale washed out green thread on a small cheap spool.  And yet, it is today's choice.  One of many in the jar.
It stares at me as I open the computer to Ebay. It is time to start Christmas Shopping.
After years of abundance, of too many toys and overwhelmed babies and toddlers,  we settled on traditions that are cherished, affordable and fun.
As Gramma Bevy I am the one to give the reliable gifts The books, The Advent Calendars and the Christmas Tree Ornaments that will mean when each precious darling leaves home and puts up their very own first Christmas tree they will adorn it with their very own ornaments. What a delight to those of us who started out with our local department store glass balls with no character or charm.
I am giving moon ornaments this year. Mostly used. My budget is small but big enough for fun. We all love the moon.
I put about 30 ornaments on my watch list. I get ready to sign out to do this exercise in daily writing and there sits the spool of ugly green thread.  Hmmmm. I ponder the significance.  And then I say
Good night Moon, Good night spool of green thread  that will soon be yesterday's spool story.

Blue and Brown - Wedding Colors Spool Story Number 3

I reach in and pull out an old Clark spool wrapped with a  pretty, rich blue thread that is stained with a milk chocolate brown. I think of a wedding party long ago, girls dressed in this brown with blue ribbons all around.  So very lovely. A magnificent day on the river. Almost Autumn but not quite.  A  beautiful bride and handsome groom happily joining hands in matrimony. Such joy and anticipation.
Years pass - and the marriage ends. Amicably, but over. They are both a  bit tattered and stained like this spool of blue and brown thread but they are both still sturdy and will carry on.
More years pass.  The bride has remarried. The groom is engaged. Life is good as the sweatshirt says it should be.
Why did this old spool of stained blue thread make me think of this marriage? Is it the wedding colors - the beautiful blue, the rich chocolate brown or is it more? I look at it and I wonder at the  resilience of marriage; the value of marriage even if it ends and both parties move forward to love others? Go on to love more deeply and well.  I think how fortunate we are as a family to hang on the  treads of love that began that day and unwound into something different than we planned. How that thread got tangled and untangled and sewn into something so very different than we expected and yet, how grateful we are that happily ever after is happening for them both  - even if not together. Not every spool story sews in a straight line.

Shimmer and Shine Spool Story Number 2

Tuesday and Wednesday are my busiest days.  I prep and cook and serve a community dinner with a great group of folk but it means I don't get much else done.  I chose my spools of thread each day and carried them around in my purse - glancing at them each time I dug for cash, or keys, or cookies.  One of them is a shimmery gray.  Almost silver but not really.  At first, early in the morning, I thought it was a dullish choice but then the sun glinted on it and I did a double take.  It was not a utilitarian notion at all. In the right light it was as beautiful as it had been boring without the benefit of the sun's rays. I had almost missed it.
THe second spool held a bright, bold, shiny navy blue.  Strong. Dark. It also caught the light but in a HEAR I AM  kind of way.  It sang out it's color, called my attention to it each time my eye fell into the pockets of my bag, even in the dark recesses of a fabric pouch already stitched together.
Is it better to be a subtle, shimmery light or a bold, brilliant light I wondered. The grey thread could easily be dismissed, even discarded as unnecessary in a clearing out,  the navy one not so much.  And what about the neons and the primary colored spools in the jar waiting for their day? Is one "better" than another? You choose thread to match the color of the fabric you are using - or to contrast it,  but is thread worthy of appreciation on its own?
As I sit at my desk, a jar of thread in my line of sight with no real plan to sew -m well, anything at all and yet, I  still delight in the colors, the textures, the spools that the thread is wound around.  Purpose is only found when it is put to use one could argue, but alas, isn't bringing joy enough? Whether it is with a shimmer or a shine. I vote yes!

Spool Story Number 1

An Empty Spool

I chose an empty spool to start  A small spool of wood with a donut hole through from top to bottom.  No sign of what color it once held.  Simply holding space.  Investigation yields clues - Belding Corticelli Nymo Nylon  imprinted on the top - 100 yards size A. The Bottom  similarly marked.  Size A  15 cents.  Shade - white - use warm iron.  Ha!  it suggests that what is sewn with this old white thread would require ironing.  The iron - one of the things I "let go of " when I moved  knowing that mine was old, moms probably older, and also that when I start over  - again -  I will get a new one.  It is a familiar tna spool.  Not brown, not beige, but tan- the color of my sunstained wrists.  It is rough cut, not finished, not polished, Like me, it is still useful - with some investment of time. And love. 

A good new beginning. 

Spools Stories

Last year I wrote "A Button a Day " stories as I walked a writing journey with Patti Digh's Project 137. This year I jumped in on day 67 and chose spools of thread as my writing prompts. My grandmother was widowed when her youngest child was a baby and she raised 4 kids in part by sewing.  I have many of her sewing objects including a very old Singer sewing machine and lots and lots of spools of old thread.  I passed some on to my niece who has an Etsy shop and makes sweet, sweet Teddy Bears, but I kept some. My mother was also a seamstress long ago and made many of my clothes.
Recently I moved from my home of 40 years and gathered and organized a big big life into a small small space ( comparatively ) in my mother's home.  Though I am only a wanna be seamstress who is frustrated by inadequacy I set up a sewing table and kept gathering the remnants of generations of real sew- ers ( writing it as sewers is a dicey business ). So, ( pun intended ) when directed to gather 137  - well, 70 really - items I chose spools of thread.  Some are old, some are new, some are so dusty it is hard to tell the color, but I counted them out into a big clear cookie jar and settled down to write each day to prompts sent by Patti and "let go" at the end of each day by moving one single spool of thread from the cookie jar into another jar. One a day until December 31st. And then, a new year.
Celebrating as I go.  Reflecting. Writing.
I love to write but so rarely make time for it.  Patti helps with that.  Mary Anne Radmacher helps with it in sharing her writing practices.  Erin Millus helps by asking me often if I have starting writing again since I moved.
Well, now I can answer yes.  Yes, Erin, I have started writing again.  Thanks for asking.
Love, Gawamma Bevy
PS  stay tuned for Spool Stories