How did crafting get to be such an obsession with me? I don't know how, but I can give you roughly the when. My granmother taught me how to hand sew when I was about 7 or 8 years old. The first thing I made was a hooded cape for my barbie doll. It was this hiddeous mauvey polyester and I treasured it for years. She taught me this awsome hem stitch that I still use today, when you are under 5 feet tall, you need to know a good hem stitch! The next crafting milestone had to be when my mother taught me to crochet. I always loved making things for my dolls, but fabric was not readily availible to me, and cardboard would only do so much, so when I learned to crochet, and there was always some yarn around, I crochet everything for my dolls I could think of. I even started selling crochet evening gowns for cabbage patch kids at the craft shows my mother did. I have some really great memories of being at craft shows with my mom. We had so much fun. She later got into silk flowers and for some reason flower arranging never appealed to me. I guess I like to build things, and I like to determine texture and I am not a fan of picking colors.
Sewing really picked up when I met my friend Laura. We made doll clothes that represented clothing from all different countries, we made our own leopard print bikinis (I hate those pictures!), we made dresses and we even made our prom gowns. That was my first real expereince with a sewing machine. It was also when I learned the important lesson "if you can't find your scissors, you are too tired to sew and should stop!".
The sewing did not get really intense until we formed the Medieval Society in College, then I needed garb! I had no sewing machine so I had to hand sew, yes I hand sewed my first few pieces of garb. I still have my first dress (which was later machine sewed and taken out and in, and out as my weight yo-yoed) It is wearable, but it just isn't my time period anymore. Anyway I purchased my first sewing machine, a babylock from cloth world my second junior year of college. I still have that babylock but have upgraded to a Viking 8 years ago.
After college I joined the MSR and needed a new outfit for every event. Then I became the sewing crew for the NJrenassaince kingdom. My favorite machine was this really old one with a thigh pedal instead of a foot pedal. I loved this machine and was the only one who liked the thigh controls. I used to say that machine could probably sew through wood. They don't make 'em like that anymore! Some years later I became obsessed with scrapbooking and then rubber stamping, and only really did those things while my son was a baby and toddler. Somewhere in the toddler stage I taught myself to knit (barely). Then a few years back (maybe 3 or 4) I took a drop spindle class at Pennsic, I LOVED it! Now that I was spinning I surely needed to know how to knit as crochet isn't period. So I tried to learn more and then found the show Knitty Gritty and Vikki Howel took me through lots of different techniques and I ate it up. I even started crocheting again.
Then we moved to PA from NJ and there are not any good scrapbook stores around here, so I started hanging out at Twist knitting and spinning in new hope. Took some spinning lessons and have been even more hard core into fiber arts.
What is hard core you ask? I have a favorite breed of sheep. I am a Jacob Sheep groupie. How sad is that! We bought our second home and we turned the basement into my craft studio. I lost my temporary job we thought would go permanent and here I am unemployed with all this fiber in the house. So I am going to make a go at my own business. I love to design, I love to work, and I am at peace when I craft. If I can only make some money it will be a win/win situation for all concerned.
