When my daughter was about three years old, she developed an affection for my glass head silk pins. She also had a fondness for my tomato pin cushion, but that is another story. She called the pins “sticky pins.” I think that the name came from the constant warnings that she was given not to stick her finger. I let her play with the pins when I was around to watch her, although I worried that I was a bad mother for letting her play with something that could hurt her. For her the pins were little people that had adventures as she took them out of the pin cushion and then replaced them.

I have written about learning to sew from my grandmother. Unfortunately we were not able to continue this tradition with my daughter. My own mother passed away before my children were born and my mother-in-law never lived close enough to give consistent lessons. My daughter did have at least one sewing adventure with her grandmother, however. My mother-in-law stayed with my daughter and her older brother, when my youngest child was born. Weeks later, when I had time to look at my sewing things, I noticed little triangles pinned to many of my pins. I ask my daughter about them and found out that Grandmother had made dresses for some of my sticky pins.

Here are some dressed “sticky pins.”

This is their close up shot.

sherralyn learning to sew, Uncategorized memories