My story....

My mom thinks I have sewing in my genes.  I'm inclined to agree. 

My mom made clothes for my brother, sister, and me sometimes when I was little.  I don't remember being to interested in watching her sew, but I don't have the best memory so I could be wrong.  I do remember little things.  It's the little things in life, the everyday ordinary things we do, that shape who we become.

I remember going to my grandparent's house a lot.  They always had a garden with strawberries, potatoes, squash, green beans and peas.  I'm sure there was more, but mostly I remember the peas and strawberries.  We used to pick strawberries, and I remember eating raw peas as we shelled them. 

My paternal grandma is the one who taught my sister and I how to do hand embroidery.  She would let us pick out a pattern and then she'd iron it on a piece of fabric and we would put it in the hoop and embroider it.  I'm not really sure what happened to all of those things we embroidered, but I know there were quite a few.  My grandma was a quilter. She would go meet at the church with the ladies for quilting club.  They would make baby quilts for the people at church who had new babies.  I've still got a few of the quilts she made, put away in my cedar chest to keep them from aging. 

I didn't really know my mom's family very well.  Her mom passed away a few years before I was born, and all of their relatives lived out of town.  My mom told me about her aunt (I think), who could look at a dress and sew one like it from no pattern at all.  Genetics definitely seems like a possibility.

I took Home Ec in 8th grade I think.  Only 1 semester to get to learn everything about keeping a home.  I think our sewing course was a week or maybe 2.  We got the basics of how to thread the machine, we picked out our pattern for the project we wanted to make (which I still have), and then we made the project.  I think that was all for sewing.
 
I moved to Arizona when I was 19.  It was different here, to say the least.  A few years later I was married, we had a house, and no kids to keep us busy, and I was starting to get in to crafts and scrapbooking.  I saw a project in some magazine I had bought, for a really cute pillow.  It looked pretty simple, 2 pieces of fabric, sewn together on all 4 sides inside out, and then make a slit in the center of one of the sides.  The front of the pillow had felt pieces that made up a bear scene and it was all hand sewn, and then after stuffing the pillow and sewing the front slit shut, you blanket stitched the scene on to the front of the pillow, covering up where the slit was. 

I didn't impress myself.  I sent the pillow to my mom (I am sure she my even still have it), and put my machine away.  I didn't really make anything else until one day when I decided to make some baby blankets for a few girls at work who were having babies.  There were 3 girls, all due around the same time, so we were going to have a shower for all of them.  I got out one of the baby blankets I had from my grandma, and used the measurements to come up with the blankets I made.  They turned out okay.....I guess.  I got a little of the sewing bug then and I made a blanket to go with a wooden scrapbook I had made.  The fabric cost me a small fortune, and I did my best, it turned out pretty nice.  I know the girl I sold it to still has it and actually bought the second one I made so she would have a spare.  Over the years I made a few blankets, but really didn't get "the bug".

Noah's Ark Blanket

I felt a little guilty that I didn't make Hunter a blanket when I was pregnant with him.  I really didn't even consider it.  I guess because I was working all the time, and being pregnant just made me not want to do anything.  The next time I got my machine out was to make a blanket for Rylie.  I wanted it to be girly, but other than that I really hadn't looked around, and I didn't know where to start, so I stopped in a quilting shop.  I was overwhelmed by all of the fabrics they had, so one of the really nice ladies there helped me pick out the fabric.  I intended to have her name, and birthdate and info put on her blanket after she was born, but I never really got around to it. 

 Rylie on her blanket

Fast forward a couple of years, no sewing at all.  No time with 2 little ones under foot all the time, and not really anywhere to do it, since we have a fairly small house.  I was having a hard time figuring out what to get all of the kids for Christmas one year.  They all have more toys and clothes than they could ask for, and I just couldn't think of anything.  So it was around Halloween that I decided to make 5 blankets for Christmas. I made 2 with monkey fabric, 2 with girly princess fabric and one for Hunter with superheros fabric.  I had a coworker embroider their names.

That was it for me, sometime between buying the fabric and completing the blankets I got the bug.  One day I was at Joanns buying material, and the embroidery machines caught my eye.  They sure looked impressive with all they can do.  I bought myself a used one, just to see if I would use it enough to justify spending the money on a nice machine.  I probably haven't gone more than a week with out touching my sewing machine since the day I bought it.  How's that for finding a hobby?