The Creator

My husband bought me my sewing machine for Christmas almost 3 years ago and I've been learning how to sew bit by bit since then. I've made drapes, a grocery bag, adorable little hanging baskets, a wall hanging quilt, a child's jacket, a coat for myself, and a few other things, all with the help of a pattern or a tutorial I'd found online. Most things I've made have come out looking pretty decent and I'd wonder once in a while if I could open my own shop. But! I figured I would and could open a shop only when I started having some ideas of my own.

So this summer when I discovered how much I liked embroidery and felt how much it kindled my creativity, I decided I'd reached the point at which I could start creating things. But boy, it's tough sometimes. Creating a pattern takes time, patience, a lot of paper and little bit of math. And for the first time I'm the one deciding whether or not this piece could use some stabilizer or interfacing and I'm the one figuring out how to put it all together and what seam allowances and stitches to use. The things I'm making aren't complicated at all construction-wise. I'm not making purses over here or anything (yet), but it's a lot different making something without the help of a pattern or a friendly tutorial full of pictures.

I suppose what I'm saying is THANK YOU to all the sewists out there who take the time to make tutorials and put together patterns for the rest of us to use. I know now how hard you work not only to create something new but to remember how you did it well enough to describe the process for someone else.

That said, I'm dealing with a creator dilemma right now on these Christmas ornaments I'm making. I think I like the edge finishing on the snowman a lot better than the edges on the bell. What do you think??

ps- Thank you to my husband, too, for that sewing machine. I swear at it because I love it :P

This Post Brought to You by the Semi-Colon

This morning marks the end of a super busy, super fun weekend (besides the Bills losing to the Jets, but we'll just pretend that never happened). We had a poker night in which poker was actually played; I started learning how to crochet; we went to a sweet little girl's first birthday party; I went to a fun, mimosas-and-tasty-food-filled baby shower, and then spent a few hours at our awesome neighbors' house watching the end of some horrible sporting event that I can't quite remember, hmmm... And when we got home, the kids were so wiped out that they went to sleep early. Thanks to Daylight Savings Time ending, I found myself free for the night at 7pm. How strange and confusing! Of course, one cannot resist the call of the sewing machine at times like these, so I hunkered down in the basement with a handful of Halloween candy and finished a project for a friend. It feels so great to get things done and to not have to sacrifice hours of sleep to do so. This is why I love Daylight Savings Time.

But! I have neglected to mention perhaps the most exciting thing to happen this weekend: my first Etsy sale! My lovely friend Jen graced my shop with her online presence and bought a wrist cuff. I am so grateful and happy. THANKS JEN!

It's a new week now and time to begin work on new projects. I have the embroidery for a new wrist cuff done and need to sew it up with a new print; I have new fabric coming today that I must wash and prep; I have ornaments to embroider names and designs on, and I have headbands to photograph and finally list in my shop. Here's hoping I can resist the allure of my cozy new ball of yarn and endless rows of practice crochet to actually accomplish some of these tasks!

My not-so-mobile command center, full of projects for the new week

The Productive Non-Productive Day

Today was a beautiful Fall day: blue skies, hardly any wind, crunchy leaves on the ground. How could anyone sew on a day like today? So I took the kids on a little wagon ride and when we got home (long after the juice boxes ran dry) we planted tulip bulbs. Those bulbs were the last item on my list of Fall gardening tasks; it feels good to have accomplished most of what I wanted to do in my flower beds this year.

But any Fall day, beautiful or not, turns into a Fall night and those are always perfect for sewing, right? The kids fell asleep early and I thought I'd get moving after snagging a few of last night's treats, but my helpful husband helpfully helped me out by turning on an episode of Doctor Who. Who am I to say no to the Doctor? So we said goodbye to #10 (so very sad about this) and once that was over it was definitely too late to sew. Definitely. But it was still too early for bed and I resolved to knocking out a backlog of "work" on the old computer here and why not make a post, too?

Publish!