Finding my niche

Art and Sewing go hand in hand in my world. I grew up with a family of sewist and crafters. My mother was an expert seamstress and my father did woodworking and other various projects. we were a military family and moved a lot which expanded my view of cultures and places. I've always been curious and love working with my hands and creating things or fixing things. I sew, paint, work with beads and fabric, wood burning, and fixing things like lamps . I learned to macramé, make fabric dolls and all kinds or artsy things because my mind is constantly wanting to learn more and do more. my mother and her family were traditional seamstresses and crafters as were my sisters. I couldn't, just couldn't put all those squares and triangles together. It was so boring and mindless as well as pointless for me. I wanted more. Making clothes was just as mundane and boring. Although I could have really nice clothes if I would take the time. I don't care. I'm not a girly girl. I was always a tomboy and out wanting to explore and check things out. I caught an armadillo once, that was funny. I heard something coming under the leaves close to a path I was sitting on so I stood up and straddled the path to see what it was. When it was close enough and I saw it was an armadillo, I waiting for the right moment and grabbed it on each side of it's body. Scared both of us. It was squirming like crazy and I'm in awe of it but a little scared so I put it back down and we both went our ways. I'm not afraid of non poisonous snakes and bugs and have picked up and handled lots of them through the years. I am solely responsible for both my sisters being afraid of anything that crawls. I am not ashamed to admit that. I guess it's just part of a tomboys' DNA to want to stick a praying mantis in someone's face and say "look" and then laugh when they run screaming and calling you names. That attitude hasn't changed even in my old age. I laugh thinking of things like that.

As we age things go wrong with our bodies and I had to have a hip replacement. I was around 50, two children at home, divorced, couldn't work and life was hard on all of us. My sister invited me to come stay with her and see if I could get help in her area. which I did, thankfully. While I was mending we would sew. She had a wonderful large sewing room and a large cutting table big enough for both of us. She kept insisting I work on quilts with her and I was so bored I wanted to scream. she was having trouble with her fancy sewing machine so I offered to help which at first she declined because she knew what she was doing. ok, then just keep on fidgeting and cussing the machine when it's usually user error. Although I didn't say that out loud. Finally a couple of days later she agreed to let me look at it. Normally when a machine doesn't sew right, the first thing you check is the thread guides. of course, she denied it was threaded wrong. ok whatever, was my first thought. I got her machine manual and checked the diagram. Well I'll be....there it was....she missed the first thread guide. so I fixed it and told her to try it. Would you look at that....it works now...I'm not the complete idiot she thought I was after all. There's more to that story but I'm not going there. So back to all the squares and triangles I didn't want to sew. I was looking through a book about landscape quilting and thought, I can do that ! so I picked all the fabrics and designed the scene in my head. I began to cut out pieces and put them on the back ground fabric and through the whole process I made my first landscape wall quilt. I pinned it to a curtain to stand back and look at it. I shocked even myself with what I had created. As I stood looking at my creation I realized I found my niche ! Didn't make my sister very happy but not my problem. I'm a happy camper and get to do more creating. so soon after that I moved out of her house a few hundred miles away. I have gone on to learn more and more about all the different things you can create using fabric, paint, beads and whatever else your heart desires. I have done Acrylic painting and learned you can even paint on fabric along with all the other interesting crafts using what ever implements and elements you want. My dream isn't complete. I'm still creating and learning. I am also hoping to find a bigger machine to do more of one of my favorite things, which is thread painting. It's a method of stitching that creates a picture on fabric with thread. I call it using the needle as your pencil .

Of course the picture is that very first landscape wall quilt. I will continue my journey to learn and create more wonderful artsy things.