A Stitch in Time.

"A stitch in time saves nine." It's what we call an "old wives tale." I've heard it since before I was born. Once I got up old enough, I starting wondering: "nine what?" I mean, how could a stitch save one thing, much less nine? And nine of what? A cat has nine lives, so does it save all the lives of one cat? That must be it!

Then as time went by, I realized what "a stitch in time saves nine" really meant. Bummer. It just saved nine more stitches. Nothing romantic about that. Just practical old advice from some old wife who had to do too much mending.

But now that I've gotten old enough to be in my second childhood, I can make it mean all kinds of things! I can just chop off the end and the phrase "A stitch in time" becomes very dreamy, don't you think? It puts the focus on time instead of the mending.

"Stitches in time" makes me think of how each of our experiences are a stitch in the times of our lives, our lives on earth but a stitch in time. Mostly it makes me think of that wonderful poem in Ecclesiastes:

 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
 A time to be born, and a time to die;
      a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
 A time to kill, and a time to heal;
      a time to break down, and a time to build up;
 A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
      a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
      a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
 A time to get, and a time to lose;
      a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
 A time to rend, and a time to sew;
      a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
 A time to love, and a time to hate;
      a time of war, and a time of peace.

Oh, how I love that poem. And yes, I sing it to the tune of The Byrds "Turn, Turn, Turn." If you heard me sing it, I can promise you you would either run or dissolve in stitches...

Oh, yes, the card! That's what started this whole thing about stitches in time. Over at the Outlawz, the Twisted Thursday challenge this week is to sew. So here is the card that evolved.

I found a piece of red DP from K&Co that I liked and cut it to 3.25 x 3.23 inches. Then I punched around the edges with a Martha Stewart punch set. Using the punched holes, I hand-sewed a blanket stitch around the edge with old counted cross-stitch thread. A plain straight stitch runs through the remaining holes.

I embossed the stripe DP (K&Co) with a Sizzix Tim Holtz folder. "Vintage Photo" distress ink (Tim Holtz) was sponged around the edges and lightly over the surface.

I found the coordinating blue background paper at Raspberry Road. It is part of their  Poppy Hill Add-on freebie . The sentiment is just typed over the background using "Garton" font for the A and "Dream Orphans" for the rest. The fonts were free downloads. The old watch is from  the Raspberry Road "Autumn Sunset" Elements collection.

I hope I didn't make this sound too difficult. It was easy. It just takes lots of words to explain, doesn't it? If there's anything else you want to know, please just ask. I will help you all I can.

Here's the sentiment as a freebie:

Blessings to you all!
Cathy