Challenge #2, Oy!

Maybe if the project I select for the challenge gets too personal, that's when I run into trouble.  I'm usually a fairly decisive person, but this assignment has me twisting and spinning.

I was pretty pleased with myself on Monday evening last week.  I had pretty well laid out the project and had assembled the relevant materials.  I had planned to make a postcard that had the seam binding going at angles across the face, with black buttons sewn randomly about the card.  I also wanted an envelope to house the card.  It would hide the card with the randomly sewn seam binding and buttons, like Alzheimer's patients try to hide their forgetfulness in the early stages of their illness.   I selected fabric I had bought for the first challenge, because it had a pattern  and color palette I know my Mom would have liked.   I had some gold metallic fabric on hand that I planned to use for the interior of the envelope.  I chose some rose-colored fabric for the postcard face, and I selected seam bindings that sort of matched.    I wasn't too concerned about the matching aspect at first, because matching clothes was something that went by the wayside pretty early for Mom.  Here's a reasonable facsimile of what I planned to work with (I don't always get the most accurate colors when I photograph - Note to self:  take a class in digital photography!)

I found a paper envelope about the right size, cut out the fabrics, and hand stitched them together to form an envelope.  Here it is just before the flaps were sewn down.

As I put the finishing touches on the envelope, I began to have second thoughts about the plan for the postcard.  I had been fingering the buttons as I selected them, and I felt that maybe they'd be better used as worry beads or charms instead of being tied down on a card.

The envelope reminded me of two smaller ones I had on hand: one that a jeweler used to hold a gold necklace I had purchased; the other to hold a rosary.  So, maybe I should scrap the postcard idea and try to figure out a way to use the buttons in a chain?  As jewelry?  As a string of worry beads/buttons?  An Alzheimer's rosary?

The mismatching of the seam binding was bothering me, too?  My Mom would never have mismatched anything in her earlier years.

So, I suppose I must decide what I want to bring from the past and what elements I want to incorporate from the present before I complete any more of this project.  It's definitely a dilemma for me.

I think I want to go forward with the envelope, but I've decided to not use the postcard to hold the buttons.  Maybe a stroke of genius will hit me as I iron this week's laundry.  Or maybe I just have to lay out a bunch of supplies on my craft table and fiddle about with them in case genius needs a shove in some direction.