Anti-My-What?

A few days ago my granddaughter picked up a doily that is on the back of my rocker and asked, “What’s this?”

“It is an antimacassar,” I told her.

“A what?”

I explained it is a crocheted doily that is supposed to protect the back of the chair while looking pretty at the same time. It is handmade but I’m not sure who made it many years ago. My mother? Could be but I don’t remember that she ever crocheted antimacassars. Perhaps my sister-in-law Jodie. She did beautiful handwork. Or maybe I saw it at an antique shop somewhere and admired it enough to buy it. I don’t know.

Several doilies, tablecloths and quilts reside in my closets and on my shelves. Some are crocheted, some are knitted, and some have embroidery gracing them. One yellow tablecloth has beautiful embroidered pansies along the edges. The lady who bent over her crochet hoop, needle in hand must have worked for hours to create such a work of art. I would have thought that the material for the cloth should be top quality to merit such talented stitching but no! The cloth is a simple square of cotton and through the years, a small hole has appeared along a fold.

My Minneapolis niece is such a talented seamstress, knitter, and creator of beautiful things that she can knit a sweater while riding in a car and carrying on a conversation and never miss a stitch. I believe that she is one of a dwindling group of people who still do “handwork” as Mom used to call it. Even I, as ungifted as I am in such areas, once crocheted a rag rug and several ponchos. I even learned to tat. Sad to say, I don’t do either any more. Once, long ago when my nephew Mark was a baby, I began making an appliqued quilt for him. That quilt is still unfinished!

Quilting has come into vogue but it is almost always machine-stitched. Tatting is almost a lost art. A few people still crochet or knit and their creations are highly prized by those of us who do neither. Who has time for such tedious stitching any more, right? Yet all these new-fangled appliances and technological devices are supposed to save time. So what do we do with it? (I’m including myself in this question.)

My mother knitted lots of house shoes for me through the years and I’ve never found any that were more comfortable or warmer. Trouble is, I wore holes in the soles. Did I throw them out? No! Impractical and nostalgic as I am, they are still in my closet. When I look at them, I see her sitting in her rocker, busily putting together those warm shoes and I certainly cannot throw them away even if I can’t wear them any more.

I guess the antimacassar reminds me of other days, slower times, less hassle. Sure, the one on the back of my chair is out-dated. No one uses antimacassars any more but I like them any way. I’m rather funny that way.