I started sewing -- embroidery -- when I was quite young. My German grandmother started me out at about five years of age. I still have a pair of pillow cases I worked on. The one thing I remember that has stuck with me to this day is - the back of your piece has to look as good as the front. I imagine this is a German thing. Not sure. Could be Puritan or Victorian for all I know but believe me the first thing my Grandmother looked at was the back side to my consternation. I unfortunately have the same habit now - when I see a piece of work - FLIP, they don't know what hit them as I peruse the backside of the cross stitch.
Grandma tried to teach me the basics of quilting. The lesson I took away was you have to be pretty darned precise. If you cut an 8" x 8" square -- they all better be 8"x8" or you are gonna be sorry once the quilt is put together. Later on in life, I bought books about quilting, I took a 6 week course in quilting where we made a lap blanket all by hand. It was well worth the time and stress. I do love quilting.
Now the sewing machine is another matter. It is my nemesis. It is not my friend. It hates me. I on the other hand, suckered punched it one day and sent it flying across the dining room table. It came pretty close to ending up in trash. OK, so I don't necessarily know how to follow a pattern but I try. OK, so it was slippery silky material (like witch hag black cape)..... It deserved the sucker punch and, I want you to know, I have not apologized to this day to that stupid machine which really is alive and walks the condo in the middle of the night. More on the sewing machine later when I talk about my sewing muse. She is great!
I suppose the lesson here is -- I have always needed some type of creative outlet in my life. When I started scrapbooking around 1998 my cross stitching slowed up. However, it always made a resurgence. I use to give my works away and seldom made them for myself to keep. I stopped that and started making works for me. I absolutely love samplers. They intrigue me. They not only go pretty fast but they have a beautiful simplicity to them.
OK, I need to clean the craft room bed off so Aaron has a place to sleep at Thanksgiving. Nope - there ain't no room on the floor. Guess I need to clean that up too?
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