Quite a year!

This is the time when sewing bloggers review their year of sewing accomplishments, fails, and appreciation for their readers. Some even report yardages used and yardages bought and such. It is a measure of productivity I guess but I've never quite been into those numbers. I will say that over the past year I have developed the habit of purchasing fabric for specific projects, a new behavior for me. I am happy with it so far. I believe part of that is the lack of quality fabric stores in my life where I can be seduced by color, texture and drape, sigh...........

2018????  It really effected my sewing in new ways. We sold our home and spent the first 6 months of '18 in a tiny apartment and with not one stitch being sewn, just no room. I continued to work full time while our new home, far away, was being Fixer Upped. I thought we would never get here but we did and it was so worth the wait. I sold so much of what was in my sewing room going through each book, notion and fabric with a "will I ever really, really use/sew this?" mentality. Bags and bags were given to a quilting guild that devoured all my garment related "stuff" and asked for more. I accomodated, less to move in the end.

Moving day finally arrived and what remained of my passion found a very large, well lit, dry nearly finished space to accommodate all my goodies. On moving day the comments flew back and forth as what remained of my resources filled nearly half the truck. Luckily my son in law totally supported me, telling all the helpers I was a woman with a passion and I was happy and they were all blessed to have me this way and just keep unloading, please. Rob gets it. He collects Porsches with three currently in the garage. He totally gets it!

It took a while to get my space organized, then after sewing a bit, getting reorganized because now I knew what I really needed where. I am now in a good sewing mode with my new space. I made some things as time went on with Vogue 9305 being my favorite. I hope to make it again shortly in some wools.

In the past year I went from working full time in my beloved Wead Library, in very laid back upstate New York, with the most wonderful women ever,  to being at home, to working a 20 hour a week part time job in New Hampshire, aka, metro Boston.  Let's just say we now know why we left the rat race and moved to that area of New York. We are back in the race. I am working far less and accomplishing the same it seems. I feel like I hardly ever stop and it is a real struggle to get my sewing time in but I am getting better at it. When I say accomplishing, I mean those things I am passionate about. The good thing is my husband and I have spent much time  pulling this house together. We sold nearly all of our furniture as well, which we don't regret at all.That has meant we have spent days and hours shopping in stores and on line, building furniture we've ordered, hanging pictures and drapery, ironing said long drapery, and it continues. In case you didn't know I did interior design for quite a few years and it has made my tastes very simple, and very particular. Nothing comes fast in decorating this house but we have no regrets. Our master is finally done with the addition of drapery this weekend and I love it. So lots of disposable time has been spent decorating.

Another time spender cutting into my sewing has been family and I absolutely love that. After 12 years of being too far away, we are very close  now  and can attend games, races, birthdays, days at the beach, etc. It is wonderful and I wouldn't change it for anything. It is the big reason we moved. One daughter has a second home on top of Plymouth Mountain, 35 minutes away, and we have glorious times visiting up there with all the family, chilling, eating, hiking and all the woods toys, atvs, snowshoes, boat on the lake, etc.

Life is very busy, very good and we are very busy and happy. Now for the future:

I have many sewing goals. I see my sewing changing. My clothing needs have changed. My part time job is a jeans and tee shirt, dress for the weather situation that I need no clothing input to improve or affect.  I can use some more casual supermarket and church clothes so that's what you will see coming up.

*  I will shortly startly seriously teaching my youngest granddaughter to sew. We have scheduled time and lessons. I have, third time, reorganized my workroom again to accommodate her new Brother machine and a special place for her to sew next to me with my machine. I am soooooo soooooo excited about this and will spend as much time as possible with her doing this. The great news is she is just as excited as I am. She asked for the machine for Christmas. She asked her mom if Bunbun could teach her if she got a machine. She is very artistic, crafty and I can't wait. She is also a delight to be with.

* Another sewing goal in process for 2019 is, choke, choke, quiltmaking! I say that because I was a serious quilter many years ago, 70s and early 80s. My first love will always be garment making but I do love a certain type of quilting. When I tried it back then I met a great deal of negativity from the guild I belonged to because it was "different". Back then it was all traditional. I left the guild, my kids were well into their grammar school careers and I went and started my own. Quilting went by the wayside and I had the thrill of sewing suits for years for my work. Loved that! Now there is a huge "Art Quilting" movement that has really appealed to me. I have started a project, fingers crossed. I am not a block maker or a piecer. I actually detest that type of work. I like putting fabric down in a painterly fashion to make a pictorial statement. We'll see how that goes.

* Actual garment goals for the year are to do more tops, perhaps some more artsy things. I have found the most incredible fabric store 15 MINUTES from my home, It is stocked to the brim with garment and quilting fabrics, very high end. Think Marcy Tilton, amazing Japanese fabrics, etc What has really blown me away about this shop are the quality notions. There are threads here that I have only read about and dreamed of owning and so much more.

* Another goal is to get back to smocking. The exquisite embroidery flosses and perle cottons I saw in this store have really inspired me. My fingers are itching.

* Meetups with other sewists are on my agenda. It has been hard with this now crazy, busy life but I hope to make this happen. We have much much more to do on our home. As soon as the weather warms it will be attack the outside.  It needs as much serious work as the inside did. We bought this home as the last home we will own and to be near our children. It is a home I never would have bought ten years ago. It is a mid century ranch with lake front. Everything is on one level and it has all we need to age in place for a long long time. We have roots establishing already. We have plans lined up already to hit the exterior bigtime in Spring. That will surely eat up my creative time but you know, this will not last forever and in the end we will have the home we want and I will sew my heart out.

* My final goal to share with you all is to blog more. I have a too long list of half written posts that I really want to share. I WILL find the time. I value each and every one of you and your comments and visits. I will keep this going. I may share a post or two on furniture refinishing or art quilting but the sewing garments will always continue. I hope the blog will just get more interesting than it has been.

Thank you , to all of you , who have been a part of my journey over these years. Let's continue and may 2019 be our most creative and blessed ever. Happy New Year everyone!