Mom's sewing basket

One of the best gifts my mom gave me was teaching me how to sew, knit, and embroider. I wasn't the easiest student. I was impatient to skip the "boring" parts and unwilling to rip out or unravel mistakes. Somehow we both got through the learning phase and bonded over trips to JoAnn's.

To practice my drawing skills, I gathered some craft-related items I inherited from my mom...like this sewing basket. I remember it sitting near my mom's well-used Singer sewing machine.

This is the model I learned on and that my mom used for almost all her life. It weighed close to 15 pounds. I wonder why she never treated herself to a shiny new model, one that could do fancy stitches?

Some of the buttons come from my grandmother's stash. They're almost 100 years old!

It wasn't until I was older that I realized that my mom taught me the Continental knitting method. It's more common in Europe than in the U.S. (which makes sense, since that's where my grandparents are from).

This is my sewing basket, purchased in my teens and used ever since.