The making of an I-pad cover

The Making of an Ipad Cover - Actually owning a home was far from my mind until the prospects of such came more into focus as we began jumping through the hoops required to qualify for the loan. I couldn't even image moving out of our small, but adequate rental townhouse in Centerville, UT where we had been living for the past three and a half years. . . . I would never have guessed I was desperately in need of a diversion from the waiting game being played by the lean holders. Short sales are anything but short. Even though Paul had revealed to me one day that I should not be surprised if we got the house, I could not start packing until we knew for sure it was a done deal. . . . One day when in my craft room, I spotted a scrap of fabric I had retrieved from an old worn out pillow cover. Though clean, it was stained and worn rather thin in places. Though a neutral color, it had an interesting texture. While digging through my stash of stabilizers, I found a piece that was the right size to go under the scrap. It was one of those that washes away when the project is finished. I had no idea what this unlikely combination of materials was going to lead up to, but I found myself replacing the broken needles in my needle felting machine and reaching for some colorful roving given to me by my fiber artist friend in Blackfoot ID. As I started felting the roving to the fabric and stabilizer, the piece warped and shrunk as expected and started to take on a personality of its own. Before long I was introducing yarn and other fabrics, creating a rather free-form, abstract expressionistic rectangular shaped piece. It was becoming so busy with its colors and shapes, I could only work on it a little at a time. Since February was drawing near, I decided to use predominately warm colors with specific red accents and a splash of light green and blues thrown in for fun. My sewing machine has some interesting built in stitches and a free motion sewing foot. I wish I had done a lot more with that, but things were starting to shape up with the house & I needed to focus my attention on the real possibility of packing. Before abandoning my little project, I did add some heart shapes here and there and trimmed up the edges. Still not knowing what it was going to be when it grew up, I gently placed it in a box destined for the new house. . . . We were waiting to hear when the closing date would be when we learned that our credit union was giving away an Apple Ipad to everyone who closed within the month of February. I was almost as excited about that as I was the house. We closed on the house the day after Valentine's day and were completely moved out of the townhouse by February 29. To celebrate, we decided to go the the Apple store at Fashion Mall to pick up the Ipad and to have dinner at the Olive Garden. By the time we left the mall, it had snowed considerably and was still coming down hard. We skipped dinner and drove directly home to our new house. Boxes were still piled up everywhere, and it took weeks to get things put away enough to start enjoying our lovely spacious home. My craft room was finally set up and boxes unloaded. The little rectangle of bright colors emerged with a new purpose in life. It was the perfect size for making a little case for my Ipad. . . . Now that I look back on this whole experience, I see my Ipad and its cover as a representation of my anxiety, and eventual joy of this move.