For so long I've tried to find my place. A place where I feel I belong. A place where I feel I can contribute something. A place where I experience joy, creativity, and I never seem to grow tired of it. Out of all the hobbies I've tried I keep coming back to one...
While I like dying fiber (like yarn), drawing, painting, etc (as evidenced by my YouTube Channel). Those things don't give me the same peace, joy, or spark inspiration quite like this one thing...
SEWING!
I love sewing so much! Don't get me wrong, I love my kids, husband, and family a lot too, but in the creative world, my one true PASSION is SEWING. At first I didn't think I would like sewing, I was scared, nervous, hesitant. I remember the first time I sat down in front of a sewing machine I was worried I would get hurt, sew my finger, or worse, be horrible at it and disappoint those around me. Much to my surprise (and those around me since not only did I lack confidence in myself, but others lacked confidence in me as well)... I seemed to be a natural. I have never been naturally good at anything, even with lots of practice and trying *really* hard I've always just been mediocre.
I started machine sewing at 18 years old when I was thrust into the middle of a busy costume shop that needed more people sewing to keep up with the costuming demand of Annie. That is when I discovered I'm actually good at something and my anxiety just melted away. As the people above me gave me compliments on my work, my confidence began to grow. What was this feeling? I've never felt so good about myself before! As my confidence grew I felt more adventurous and began to try more creative or complicated things in sewing.
However, this wasn't my first encounter with sewing and my creative side...
I remember when I was 8 or 9 years old I found my mom's sewing box. I became curious. I grabbed a needle and thread and took off with it. I even created a teddy bear "pattern" that I hand stitched and stuffed myself. It was literally two mirror images of a "sort of bear shape" that I drew out on the fabric, cut out, and sewed together using the running stitch. Its head was not only weirdly shaped, but too big for it's skinny limbed body, but despite all the errors it was perfect in my little child eyes and I loved that bear to pieces.
When I think "what should I create next?" 9 times out of 10 it's usually something involving sewing. I've decided to start embracing it and going where the creative juices carry me instead of trying to force myself to turn it into a dyeing project or art piece thinking that's what others will want to see when I share it... sewing IS my art piece. So, instead of thinking "what can I share to please others?" I'm starting to think "I want to share what pleases me with others."
While I have fallen in love with quilting in the sewing world and will probably be the main subject matter for the foreseeable future of this blog, I do enjoy sewing clothes and many other things that I plan to share in this space as well.
While I love creating and editing videos (and will still be doing some of that on YouTube)... I still get nervous talking on camera and often forget what I wanted to say, so don't expect anything eloquent over there (or really here either haha). Since I, myself, am a visual learner and don't always do the best to explain steps in words or images, some times it's easier for me to shoot a video of what I'm doing to explain things. So, hopefully between my channel and this blog I'll be able to sufficiently share my sewing process.
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