A Lifelong Love Affair

I love scissors! I love all kinds of scissors – embroidery, easy action, paper, office, folding, snips, non-sticks, storks, and shears. I love them in every colour – orange, purple, red, blue, iridescent, silver, and decorated in floral patterns. There is no such thing as too many scissors in my household! I have scissors in my kitchen, my car, my purse, and especially in my sewing room, where they have a drawer of their own, or are hanging from vintage candy dishes.

My love affair with scissors began early. Both my parents were teachers. As the first child, I was given books and scissors and coloring books and newspapers to play with at an early age. Even though I am left-hand dominant, scissors so fascinated me that I learned to cut with right-handed scissors and still do to this day.

Scissors meant you could capture all the colours and shapes that surrounded you – and put them together on a page or a board. Scissors encouraged precision and eye-hand coordination that usually involved a tongue held determinedly in place, as I struggled to follow the lines! Together with crayons, scissors meant quiet time…personal time…happy time with my Mum close by.

During my school years, scissors helped me create rustic art projects. Never a gifted artist, painter, or sculptor, at least with a pair of scissors in my hand, I could create something in our Friday art classes. I could colour inside the lines and cut ON the line. It meant the difference between a pass and a fail!

My mother was a gifted sewist. She made all our clothes and tiny doll clothes as we were growing up. My parents didn’t have much money then, but my mother’s Singer sewing machine and tailor’s shears were her pride and joy. We learned early on not to touch those shears - just getting to hold them was an honour! As I learned to sew with her, I soon learned the joy of handling a sharp pair of shears as patterns were cut out and seams assembled. Cutting with shears, and trimming with pinking shears, was a whole new experience. Once again, the eye-hand coordination, with the tongue held just right, came into play. The love affair grew.

Once in the working world, I discovered a whole new world of scissors for office work and teaching. My sister and I would spend dozens of hours each year creating materials for our classroom, laminating them, and then sitting in front of the TV, or visiting with family, as we used our precise little scissors to cut out every letter, shape, and design from the laminated sheets. (By now, our eye-hand coordination was well-developed, and we could wield those scissors with speed and aplomb!) In every office position I’ve held, if there weren’t scissors provided for my desk space, I purchased my own, and usually two or three pairs, just in case one pair took a walk. You never know when you need to snip apart labels, cut a specific shape – or take apart something where a sharp blade is required. My colleagues knew they could count of me to have a pair of scissors readily available!

The thrill of constructing started early, but then school, university, and work got in the way. Scissors were a useful tool in all that I did, but they were mostly used for utilitarian work until about 20 years ago when I started quilting. That’s when my love affair with scissors REALLY took off!

I had no idea of the myriad of uses and types of scissors that were out there until I began sewing, quilting, bagmaking, and most recently, machine embroidery work. Over the years, my treasure trove of scissors has grown each year. It continues to grow as I try new techniques and methods and search for just the right tool for each specific job. I am known to my friends as “the tool girl”, between my collection of scissors, rulers, and little tools.

While there was – and is - something special about standing in a store’s stationery aisle and perusing the scissor selection –that experience becomes positively euphoric when the scissor display is hanging on a quilt store rack – or preserved beneath a glass counter. Ohhhh…the possibilities…the sharpness…the beauty…the perfect tool. They call me to take them home!

Who knew that those early years of crayons and colouring books and newspapers would lead to the adult sewist’s tools of fabric, thread, scissors, rulers, and machines. The quiet time as a child has translated into quiet time in my sewing room, or with a binding project in my hands. Each project I start begins with a pair of scissors. With a quilting project, it starts with a rotary cutter, but as the quilt top is created, the applique scissors might come out to play. The snips or stork scissors pop out for each seam end, quilting line, or thread cutting for handwork. My little sharp-nosed non-stick scissors are a boon when working with fine fabrics and tiny spaces. There are paper scissors just for cutting out pattern pieces and applique shapes because you don’t want to squander the sharpness of your shears on those!

When I started bagmaking, I found a whole new use for scissors! Cutting leather and vinyl fabrics meant new scissors to handle those – and cutting zippers was a whole new challenge! I needed tools that could cut through weight and depth and metal and plastic. Scissors met the challenge yet again!

When I recently bought a new sewing machine with an embroidery unit attachment, the collection grew again. There is nothing like being able to trim a thread right to the very edge, courtesy of a pointed, sharp, small, curved pair of scissors! Eye-hand coordination at its best!

Time to create is precious. Whether it’s working with colourful fabric, soft leather, or colourful thread, it is the time one spends with oneself that is truly the gift. Creating takes one’s mind elsewhere. It is the thinking of the combinations that might work, and about the recipient of the project when done (even if it’s yourself); putting all your effort and love into crafting something that will bring joy to others. It’s time away from the ordinary tasks of everyday life; time away from the stresses of the working world and bills and pandemics and lately, hatred and racism. Creating projects gives me time to focus on the beauty of life and be grateful that I can take time to create something new, even as an expression against all the ugliness out there. It is the satisfaction of completing something beautiful and well-executed.

Sewing and bagmaking also means connecting with new communities; with others who also create, inspire, encourage, and model. My hobbies mean building relationships with like-minded individuals, both personally and through virtual communities. Friendships that started with scissors, needles, and thread, have grown into strong, supportive relationships with individuals and groups who share laughter, love, and even grief together. What may have started as a simple sharing of a pair of scissors in a class or a retreat became a conduit to lifelong friendships and creative inspiration.

That special pair of scissors that were handed down to you from your mother; the expensive shears that called to you from beneath the glass counter; the unicorn scissors that were gifted to you by a cherished friend, became not only the pathway to creativity and imagination, but the pathway to a blessed, joyful, and grateful life as well. May the love affair continue for many years to come.