Woman's Work: Broom Block

My grannie used to say, 'A woman's work is never done when it never gets started!' –G. Gaunt

Housework is a funny thing. It looks deceptively simple. It can be parceled out into jobs that can easily be completed 10 minute increments, but it can also expand to fill any available amount of time. You can spend hours and hours scrubbing the house spotless and washing every stitch of clothing in the house, but can you ever really call it done? I've been wrestling with a feeling of inadequacy in my housework for years and wondering how good is good enough? I go between being overly obsessive about how my house looks to devil-may-care. For the most part, it's been more devil-may-care. I've discovered that the world doesn't end if the vacuuming isn't done and nobody really complains if the end tables and book shelves are dusty as long as they have clean undies and something to eat.

Finding a better balance between obsessing with and settling for how the house looks has been on my mind a lot lately.

I have fallen completely in love with Lori Holt's Woman's Work appliqué quilt. It is a quilt about housework – the chores that traditionally fall to women. It was originally a year-long appliqué club. I'm hoping that I can finish each of the twelve sections in two weeks and be able to finish it in six months instead. I started with the roll of paper towels because that block is just my favorite! Then I had to go back to the back to the beginning of the pattern and start with section one; this super cute broom and the embroidery above it. After that, I spent a little time with a real broom and did a few other chores around the house.

I loved what Lori had to say about housework in her pattern liner notes: The things we do as women everyday to take care of our homes and try to keep them in order is a constant struggle {for me anyway} and oftentimes taken for granted by our families – but work always has great value even if it does come without praise or notice.

As I have designed this quilt, I have had a desire to appreciate housework more. Instead of feeling 'overloaded' with laundry or becoming frustrated with small handprints all over the glass on my front door 'again' – I've tried to have just a bit more patience as I have come to realize what it would mean to have no tiny hands in my home leaving 'evidence' of where they have been or even no 'large' hands to leave whiskers in the bathroom sink! Considering the alternative, I'm happy just to keep cleaning and HOPING that my work never will be done.

It helps to put things into the right perspective. Thanks Lori!