Sewing Vloggers

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

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!


30 comments:

  1. Bunny can you please share the fabric store? It won't be all that close to me, but will probably be worth a field trip east.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gladly. It is called Quilted Threads and is in Henniker, NH, right near New England College. Here is a link: http://quiltedthreads.com/

      Delete
    2. Oh, my goodness, isn't it just fantastic!! I wish I was closer! And I didn't know you were a smocker!

      Delete
    3. My goodness, Bunny. I drive through Henniker at least weekly when I go up to Warner to visit my mother. I will stop in there soon!

      Delete
  2. Bunny, your year sounds similar to ours as we moved to another city (Austin, TX) to be near our youngest daughter in July. We've also renovated our home and are nearing completion so my sewing has been limited. Luckily our new community has a very active fabric and fiber facility so I have a new tribe! This year I want to sew more creatively as my wardrobe has all the basics. Thank you for continuing your blog. I so look forward to your posts in 2019. Karen

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's great to hear, Karen. I think I may discover a fiber community here as well. Interesting how we both have the same sort of thoughts regarding our creativity. You may see something on furniture refinishing, which I love to do and have done for many years, in here now and then too.

      Delete
  3. Bunny, it was good to hear from you. You have wonderful things planned for 2019. I am looking forward to hearing about them.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Happy New Year Bunny. Sounds like 2019 is going to be lots of fun for you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Vicki. Happy New Year to you, too.

      Delete
  5. Happy New Year to you and the family. It's so good to read about your adventures despite missing the blog posts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I really appreciate that. There is a reason for everything and everything to its season. Happy New Year to you and yours too.

      Delete
  6. Each of us approach our end of year posts as they portend to our lives. I think since your year has been one of great change and more accessibility to family that is what's reflected in your year end post. Selfishly, I do hope you blog more because I learn so much from you. I would love to hear about you teaching your granddaughter to sew, to see your new sewing room and even to see the landscaping on your new home. Also the Art Quilting is exciting...I'm not a lover of the cut, block quilts (traditional) but love the Art Quilts and out of the box pieced quilts. Look forward to your versions too! Happy New Year!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Carolyn. That really warms my heart as I was a bit sheepish about mentioning it. Its always been about garment sewing here. One of my transitions forward is to share more of my creativity that my readers haven't seen. I love to refinish furniture and just had a positive outcome on the headboard project for our master bedroom, pics and info coming. There will also be a fair amount of home dec / window treatmenst, pillows and such. I have decided my blog will express all of my creativity, not just my sewing. Do remember, however, garment sewing is my love. I was out today getting the fabrics for the portrait quilt and my mind was rushing with a top I want to make the whole time. You just can't take that out of me. At this age I think it is important to spread my wings and learn as much new as I can. Have a wonderful New Year, Carolyn , and give those babes a hug for me.

      Delete
  7. I always love reading your posts Bunny. Looking forward to seeing your wonderful makes again. Love the way you are enjoying your family and your new home!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Happy New Year Bunny. Your year sounds like ours. We moved last year to our new home close to our daughter. Between being a daily part of the grands lives to assist our daughter (newly single) and working on updating the new house it really does not feel like I retired, which I finally did last year. Sewing room is actually two spaces now and other hobby is a third space. Evenings seem to be the most relaxing with hand work. But I wouldn't trade all this for anything. Who knew I would become a 'soccer mom' at my age!! I so look forward to seeing your blogs as I am self-taught and learn so much from you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Awww, thank you so much. I am learning a lot with this quilting project. I insist on workig on it every day. I am enjoying it but it is work as I really have to concentrate, make mistakes, redo. You know how that is. I basically started the project three times and just decided I will go with the original plan ( eye roll). It is satisfying, though, to see things coming together. I will work on a simple garment project at the same top and more to come on that. I need to have a palette cleanser in between this other more intense project. I wonder what they would call us "Soccer Mimis, Soccer Grans, Silver Soccer Moms"......hmmmmmm......

      Delete
  9. Welcome to New England! I live about an hour from Henniker NH, just over the NH border in MA; I hope we can get together soon to talk about sewing, fabric, blogging, moving, etc. There's a great ASG group that meets at the Victorian Cupboard in Salem NH https://www.thevictoriancupboardsewingstudio.com and a wonderful ASDP chapter that meets monthly in various locations. You can email me through my website: creatingembellishment.com. I hope we get to meet IRL soon! Ellen

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My daughter lives right over the border as well in one of the Andovers. I love Henniker, such a quaint New England town with so much Character. We lived the next town South over for 21 years and now we are 2 small towns north so we are back in our old stomping grounds, feels good. I will try to email you regarding ASG. I've also hear there is one quite close to here as well. Thanks for the info and invite.

      Delete
  10. This post was so heart warming. You sound so fulfilled and happy. I personally do not mind at all if you expand your blog post to include your other creative ventures. As sewers or fiber artists we all have some other underlying creative juices bubbling and love to see what others are doing. I have an almost 5 YO granddaughter and can't wait for her to show an interest in sewing. But she has the attention span of a gnat right now and I don't want to scare her off from doing something too soon. Your future posts sound very inspiring...can't wait!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I'm delighted that you will be including all manner of creativity in your posts for the coming year. It is inspiring!

    Wishing you a most joyous and healthy 2019!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Happy New Year Bunny! I look forward to hearing more about your life and sewing this year. You sound happy which will surely make you very productive this year. The fabric store you mentioned sounds amazing! How fabulous. There is no place like that here. My Bernina dealer enlarged their store, and I was hoping that they would also increase their threads, but no such luck. I hope that you will review your purchases so that I can use your expertise to purchase some interesting thread.

    ReplyDelete
  13. How exciting that you get to teach your grand to sew! FUN!!

    Sounds like 2018 was super busy but rewarding and hopefully 2019 will be even better!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Happy New Year Bunny. I'm looking forward to your blog posts and very interested by the home dec as I will have to deal with this too though it's not what qi like best.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Happy New Year! I enjoyed reading your post and hearing what you've been doing and plan to do. We've currently postponed our move closer to our family (just say due to British politics AKA Brexit which means that there is so much uncertainty around everything and that affects houses) but it remains on the agenda and we have time to do the decluttering that is so badly needed.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I am looking forward to reading your 2019 posts and please include everything you have mentioned!

    ReplyDelete
  17. I have planned a post on the current state of blogging, fit standards, new sewing projects, and some furniture refinishing. Thanks all and stay tuned. Thanks for being such great blogging friends.

    ReplyDelete
  18. This post warmed my heart. LOVE.

    ReplyDelete
  19. "Art Quilting"? My DH is a fine artist. In the darkest hours of his life he did a Finnish Rug called a Ryu? He darns his own socks and sews on his own buttons--skills learned in the Navy. Together we have shared a deep appreciation for what I believe you are calling "Art Quilting". I have it in my mind that this might be something he would love to do once we have more time. We are in our 70's now and still working. He encourages me in my garment sewing, but I know he loves those quilts and that technique. When you have time to go explore this new art world please post links. I am coaxing, cajoling, nudging, etc. If he ever got into it he would do brilliant things!

    ReplyDelete
  20. OMG, it's Bunny from the Wead! I had met you a couple of times, taking out sewing books. I didn't realize that you have fled the northern wastelands for New England - I shall so miss you! With my impending retirement (over 2 yrs to go...), I've been reading and reading about sewing online and I have even signed up for a lah-di-dah sewing atelier in Ottawa in the spring (Lladybird showin' us how to rustle up some Ginger jeans). How did I find you? Synchronicity? On one blog, a Bunny popped up. How many Bunnies can there be?! Then, while reading a very long thread on Pattern Review, someone referred to you as Bunny! Click on photos: it's our Bunny! Wishing you ALL the best as you go forward and, yes, I am now subscribed to your blog!

    ReplyDelete

Engaging commentary:

Had to Refurbish This One!

    About  6 or 7 years ago , during the dawn of the Zipper Trend,  I bought one of my rare retail items. It was a blush pink and black bord...