Grandma's Scissors

Well, if you've read my blog for awhile- you know I always have a story behind the story. I'm sitting here tonight picking the fuzzies out of the velcro tabs in Angel Baby's cloth diapers. For any of you who have (or have had) babies, you know what I'm talking about. Somehow, in the wash, fuzzies collect in anything velcro. It drives me crazy! While my fingertips were becoming numb I thought to myself, there has got to be a better way! I went to my sewing table and pulled out a tiny pair of scissors.

The scissors have worked awesome to scrape out the fuzzies, making the job a lot faster and less time consuming. I began to think about the scissors and how it reminded me of my grandmother, a special summer and her sewing scissors.

One summer when I was around 14 or 15 years old, my grandmother was confined to bed. I can't remember if it was when she was recovering from lung cancer surgery or if it was from the osteoporosis in her back that caused her extreme pain. All I remember was that she spent many months in bed.

I walked to grandma and grandpa's house nearly every day and spent lots of time there. I would go with grandpa to run errands, visit my great aunt, cook meals in their kitchen & watch him as he tinkered in the shop. Other times I would simply go and lay down with grandma in the bed for hours at at time. We would talk, look out the window and she would tell me stories of days-gone-by. Towards the end of the summer, grandma ventured out of bed a little more for short periods of time. That summer she taught me how to sew and how to use a sewing machine. She helped me make a beautiful skirt- long and flowing. She probably did most of the work but she made me feel like I 'made' my own skirt.

Her easy chair was in the living room, next to it was an end table and next to that was a card table on top of which sat her sewing machine. The end table held a cookbook or two, usually some newspaper clippings and a cup. The cup held some pens, pencils, a seam ripper and a little scissors. She always grabbed for that little scissors when she was tearing out a seam or fixing my many sewing 'boo-boos.'

As I sat here tonight using my little scissors, I thought of grandma because my scissors look just like hers did. Once upon a time, I came across this website that sold old fashioned sewing and homemaking items. It was there that I saw the stork scissors. I immediately recognized them as the same kind my grandma had and I wanted some for my sewing collection. These little scissors reminded me of such a sweet summer and some very special moments with my grandma.

All because of a pair of scissors.