Getting Back To Crafting Happiness

I enjoyed doing some more sewing.  I often have a love/hate relationship when it comes to sewing for work.  Right now it's all honeymoon.  I shop very cautiously at Jo Anne's for new fabrics because I haven't got a lot of money for outlay.  When I get to sew something in a new fabric it's pretty exciting.  Aside from the cotton duck for the market bags, my fabric buying has been nil since closing Dustpan Alley.  I am mostly using fabrics I already have on hand.  (Because I bought bolts wholesale, I have a lot of fabric).  I just went to Boersma's to help my mom find a good used sewing machine.  Boersma's is one of those old school quilt shops that carries only good quality cottons, walls and walls of quilting cottons and novelty prints.  It's a mecca and I know about 30 people who would not waste their time making a pilgrimage to my town solely for the pleasure of shopping there.  And then coming to my house for tea.

They have sewing machine mechanics there that actually know how to fix every kind of machine.  If you've ever taken your sewing machine to some young punk who previously only used to fix cars, you'll know what an important thing it is to have access to real professionals of sewing machines.

I was mesmerized by all the new lines of fabrics.  I wanted to buy more fabric!  Mine is so outdated now.  I even have friends who've designed lines of fabric that I know will show up in Boersma's and when it does I can saunter in there and drop names like a jerk.  Check out Monica's first line of fabric:  Happy Zombie Fabric, and here's another look: Christmas Gnomes.

Special note to Monica: I would have cheered you on too if you had not kept your secret from me!!!!!  (Just because I'm verbally incontinent with my own secrets doesn't mean I can't keep other people's.  Just in case you didn't know.)

I may have let my life derail a lot of the craft content that used to be on this blog, but I am still the same fabric loving sewing geek I've always been and in spite of the leechy tax man I am still enjoying making my market bags and dinner napkins, and pot holders.  I'm starting to see the bigger picture which is that making things is regenerating.

The peony fabric makes me think of another crafting lady I love.  It makes me think of Elizabeth because I bought this instead of a fabric I nearly bought solely because it made me think of her and my friend Angela who both have a much more romantic taste than I do in fabrics and colors.  I didn't buy the other one because it was beautiful roses on a cream background, the fabric was so pretty (I mean, I personally loved it) and I had it in the cart to cut when I remembered my lesson with this print.  People don't buy pale market totes unless they're super cheap canvas ones.  Market totes get dirty.  The most pale bag I've sold is the cream one with the light green geometric print.  I think it's done well because there's enough green to fool one into thinking that farmer's market onion schmutz won't show up on it.  So I bought the dark peony print instead.  And now every time I look at it I think of Elizabeth and Angela and how they would have liked the other print better.

I'm only sharing that because I think it's really funny how sewing and fabrics makes me think of other creative people I know and how they'd fit in with whatever I'm working on. 

I can't end a post on crafting, mention the people I've mentioned, without also screaming out a hello to Pam.  Pam is always getting Elizabeth into trouble.  They're close friends and go on frequent road trips of a crafting nature.  Pam is as glamorous as Elizabeth Taylor but without all the creepy drug habits and with fewer diamonds (I'm terribly sorry about the diamonds though, who wouldn't want some of Liz's jewels?).  When I first met Pam, (one of the very first regular Dustpan Alley readers, back when it was much more craft focused), she was happily testing other people's sewing patterns and helping to sew quilts for her fabric and quilt pattern designing friends (one of whom is Elizabeth, oh, didn't I mention that she has quilting books published?), and now, four years later, she's designing handbag patterns* of her own which I knew was the inevitable outcome of someone so experienced and passionate about fabrics and sewing.  She always talks about her  celebrity sewing stints, but what I want to know is, who's going to be Pam for Pam?  (Surely she needs a starry eyed person to sew up all her quilt show samples?)

What's really funny is that all these people I've mentioned know each other. 

I'm mentioning all of these online crafting friends because I actually take them with me whenever I go to inspect the rows of printed duck and look at the new craft patterns or when I go to Boersma's this week and the sewing machine expert (whose name I don't remember) jokes with my mom about how he knows her daughter very well, how I am a well known character to the Boersma's crowd and it reminded me how much of my time used to be spent working on sewing projects. 

I miss that.  I don't miss trying to keep the store stocked with the things I made because that was too much.  All those late nights sewing after long days being the store owner customer service wretch.  But I miss developing patterns and finding new fabrics and being able to have my head in the maelstrom of creativity that erupts when I drag out all my tricks and put them on my table and go. 

The orders I got recently (partly cause people were worried about me and wanted to help and partly because I really do make some nice things) might have been a burden but they weren't.  I enjoyed it. 

I want to hold onto that.  While the tax man drains my blood and my body refuses to shed pounds, and my kid needs mega supervision, and my job  needs my full attention every day, I still need to come back to the craft table frequently.  That excitement I felt at having some new offerings in my Etsy shop?  That was real and felt so good.  Ideally I'd like to not need to sew at all for commerce.  I'd like all my projects to be for me.  However, while the Etsy shop is giving us such a boost, I am just going with it.

I want to share all this because there is always so much drama here.  So much upheaval, chagrin, outrage, fear, the usual for a poor writer trying to stay afloat.  I'd say the things I'm going through aren't uncommon but I let everyone see it while others, more wisely I often think, keep their internal dialogs and private upheavals -well - private.  I need to remember to share the good more often too.  You all already know I'll never be all light and fuss-free.  I'm just trying to balance things out some. 

Two more things and then I need to start my paid job.  Remember the discussion on burlap?  In spite of the fact that I think my burlap market totes are charming and wonderful, apparently the public doesn't share my joy of them.  While my printed duck market totes continue to sell well (yay!) the burlap ones have not hooked a single soul.  Here's the positive take on that: I will now use them for myself.  I love them!!  I have been so busy making things to sell on Etsy and have not made myself any market totes (I'm still nursing my oilcloth ones along).  So to celebrate being in the "love" phase of my love/hate relationship with sewing, I'm going to start using them right away.  I thought you'd all be interested to know that the experiment has revealed that while burlap is seeing some action in the craft world, it seems to remind too many people of barbed wire to want to have a bag made out of it.  (I think Pam might have been the one to point out that burlap for a bag was uninviting?)  I'm not sorry to try these things.  And now I have two cute burlap market bags for myself.  WIN!

The last thing I want to say is that I've finally finished fixing the text in the new url for Stitch and Boots.  There is still an issue with the pictures, but I'm hoping to start posting new content on it this week.  I must consult my expert friends and see if we're finally ready to officially launch.  However, the new url is already up and running.  The text is now fixed.  So if you'd like to check it out- here it is: