I thought long and hard before embarking upon this blog, "would I have anything to blog about", "how do you actually write a blog", "will anyone read it if I do write a blog". I had reached a point where I was re-evaluating my life and my work/life balance. My stressful career was causing health problems and working in excess of 12 hours a day and evenings/weekends meant that I just didn't have the time (or the energy) to do what I really wanted to do - make things, spend time with the family and enjoy my garden.
As I mentioned in my post about the decoupage table (here) I first started crafting when I was little. I started out with learning to knit when I was 3 or 4 years old. I progressed to learning to embroider and took great pride in making gifts for the family at Christmas and for birthdays by making place mats or embroidering initials on handkerchiefs for grandparents. Embroidery then progressed to cross stitching (which is a passion I have passed on to my daughter).
My mum used to make a lot of clothes for me and my brother and sister. This was really out of necessity as we were a one parent family and there wasn't the money around to be buying new clothes all the time. I carried on with making my own clothes into my early twenties, but as work started to take over I had less time and found that my crafting projects were taking longer to complete, but I still enjoyed doing them and found them to be an excellent way of "switching off".
When I got married I made the table decorations for the reception gifts for the bridesmaids. We started a family soon after we got married and I knitted the obligatory cardigans for the baby once born I started making dresses quilts for the cot. I even made a lamp shade for the nursery as I couldn't find one which matched the theme of the decoration.
Over the years my love of crafting and making things has continued, whether it be purely for pleasure, such as cross stitching, or whether it includes practical makes such as cushion covers, clothes or curtains etc. I take great delight in the fact that I have been able to pass on my love of crafting to my daughter.
I almost feel as though I have come full circle and I am now back to the stage of enjoying my crafts, still learning new crafts and improving all the time on the old ones, and finally starting to think that I could develop this further as a living. When I am at work all I can think about is my evenings and weekends when I will be free to do crafts - I know that those of you who are reading this blog will be able to share those sentiments.
 |
| Baskets made for my daughter to take to university - she has no idea what she is going to keep in them but she wanted them anyway! |
I have been thrilled by the popularity of the Great British Sewing Bee (find out more here) - it is once again "cool" to be making your own clothes and to be able to sew in general and this is once more a skill that people want to learn.
So you see this blog is the culmination of almost 40 years of crafting during which time I have tried a lot of different crafts (still so many that I want to try though) but there is still so much to learn and pass on to the next generation. If anyone who is reading this blog is thinking "could I do that" or "I would love to have a go at that" then DO IT! One of the biggest things I have learnt (or at least have come to accept and realise) over the last 12 months is that you just have to go for it and stop procrastinating, no matter what "it" might be.
I am excited by where this crafting journey will take me and to sharing it on this blog as I hopefully start to realise some of my dreams.
I would really love to hear about your own crafting journeys and how you have reached wherever you are now and how you hope to get wherever you are heading.
Sharon x
No comments:
Post a Comment