Dear Lola,
Isn’t it great, we get a whole month to celebrate our love
of sewing? This month is also the
5-year anniversary of my passionate marriage with sewing! When I began this creative journey, I didn’t
make the connection that September is National Sewing Month, but how
appropriate! At the time I got my start,
there were so many other things to think about – which machine to buy, which
needles to use, which fabrics work best and which threads are right.
I have made lots of decisions since I took my first leap
into the world of sewing. There have
been mostly good decisions (taking classes and joining guilds), but sprinkled
in for good measure there have been some bad (sewing late at night) and some
downright funny (sewing a sleeve to a neck hole)! Since we are celebrating, it’s a good time to
recount some of my decisions and experiences along the way!
My most “favorite” funny decision was purchasing a box of
fabrics at an estate sale. I’d been
hearing about how important it was to build up a stash. The price for the box of fabric seemed
affordable; it was a large plastic bin for $20.
The family of the original owner didn’t sew like “Granny”. They were happy to get it off their hands and
I was excited to be building my stash! I
rushed it home, ready to be creative and discovered that the fabrics were full
of bugs. Needless to say, I learned that
bargains aren’t always bargains. My fab
new find went right into the garbage! I
couldn’t help feeling a little sad for “Granny”, the original owner - I’m sure she would have been appalled to
think of her treasure trove being full of bugs.
I’m sure she imagined she would make beautiful creations with her pretty
fabrics. What an overall disappointment for me– I thought how could anyone let
their fabric grow so old it became infested with insects?
My favorite good decision was purchasing my Bernina sewing machine. As a newbie, it was wonderful to get the
mastery classes with my machine. The
Bernina Mastery Workbook provides hand-on steps to get a new sewing enthusiast
started. I still refer back to the
stitch settings and information in this gigantic book! I continue to love my Bernina machines (now I
own several) and all their fabulous feet!
The Bernina Blog continues to
educate me and I know I will always be a Bernina Babe! My dealer, Elegant Stitches, has not only
provided me with great service, but also with some of the most important
friendships of my recent life. This is a
special shout out to Shelley, Renee, Brenda, Marian, Laurie, and Maureen. These ladies are my “go-to” bunch for sewing
support and real life hugs.
Another amazing experience was joining the Quilt Alliance and attending Quilters
Take Raleigh. It was so inspiring to
learn about this organization’s mission of documenting, preserving and sharing quilts
and the stories associated with those quilts!
Seeing a family quilt from the 1700’s is an experience I’ll never
forget. If you’re not a member, you
should consider joining to further their great cause.
The biggest, bad decision I have made was purchasing a
high-powered digitizing software package.
While I love, love doing embroidery on my machine. I really never use the digitizing part of the
program. I really only need to monogram,
resize and combine designs. So the money
that I spent for all the other fancy features was truly unnecessary. To be honest, this isn’t the only item that I
have purchased that I haven’t utilized to its full extent, but I think many
sewing enthusiasts have similar stories to tell. We all get caught up in the excitement of
what we think a product can do for us and then we get home and realize it’s not
as practical as we thought.
And the final admission I have to make is that I definitely
own way too much fabric. In 5 years, I
have accumulated more fabric than the legal limit! Ok, so there isn’t a legal limit, but maybe
there should be! I say this only
because, here it is September-National Sewing Month and I can’t find a thing
I’m looking for! I have my fabric hidden in
closets, under beds and in plastic boxes.
I need to find it all, try to use it up and shrink down my supply. Why, you ask.
Because, some day, I’d hate to think of my fabric for sale at an estate
sale and full of bugs!
So to my sewing friends – it is September – National Sewing
Month! Get busy and sew! Let’s celebrate all the great things about
sewing! The last thing we want to do is feed the bugs!
Hugs and stitches,
