“God must be behind this.” That was my first thought when I was first invited to the Sewing Circle. How did they know I would be interested in sewing and craftwork? Anyhow, the invitation was accepted and I attended my first Sewing Circle on the last Friday of June 2010.
Aunty Julie is the creative force behind the Sewing Circle and I was thoroughly inspired by the beautiful things she created out of what might appear to be scraps to you and I.
She could make a plain, dull T-shirt come alive by a well-placed appliqué. Her bedspread featuring football clubs in the English Premier League drew oohs and aahs. She is also currently showing us how to make a hand-sewn Santa Clause doll. So motivated and inspired by the beauty one can create with one’s hands that I actually attempted to transform my daughters’ “home singlets” with a motif or two.
At my first sewing circle, the ladies had already started on a project to make a patchwork blanket. 5 or 6 of them had taken pieces of cloths home and each had to painstakingly sew it together to form a long strip. These strips were then brought back to the Circle to be arranged and put together to form a blanket.
What struck me was that it did not matter that the stitches done by each individual person was probably not the same as the other because when everything was pieced together, the blanket looked complete and beautiful. And I’m sure after the chief seamstress adds the finishing touches, the blanket will simply be gorgeous, not to mention warm and cozy. And I suppose, each of us is also piecing together the fabric of our ordinary lives, and hoping to eventually be part of the larger blanket of God’s Will which will no doubt be beautiful beyond comparison.
After about an hour of working on our projects, we usually have a snack and on a couple of occasions, a DVD was screened for some spiritual input. I remember the last DVD we watched was an excellently produced one tracing the footsteps of Jesus in the Holy Land.
In writing this article, I asked myself why I keep going back to the Sewing Circle. I had to stop and reflect because the answer did not come quickly. In the creative atmosphere of making beautiful hand-stitched items, I get a sense of comfort and tranquillity in the presence of others who believe in the spirit of the Work and how even sewing a little ordinary of a something can be done with so much dedication, love and perfection. That’s probably why.