Quilting- The Joy of Gifting

It is better to give than to receive. This is a quote that most of us know. For me, it is also very true. I love Christmas, birthdays and other gift giving occasions like new babies, weddings, anniversaries, housewarmings, and more. I adore giving hostess gifts whenever we are invited to someone’s home as well. I just love giving gifts. I’ve never been able to afford extravagant gifts, but I think that my joy in giving shows in the choices of the gifts.

With my love of quilting, machineembroidery, crochet, cross-stitch and decorative painting, along with soap-making and cooking, I’ve given my share of homemade gifts over the years. With rare exception, my gifts have always been much appreciated. I’m very glad I took up soap-making and made time for embroidery as these are the quickest of crafts!

During a recent online discussion at a machine embroidery group, it came up that those of us who make homemade gifts rarely receive homemade gifts. Instead, we receive purchased items. While any gift is appreciated, it is the consensus that we would all love to receive something that was crafted just for us.

While I do create homemade items for my friends who are also crafters, they never reciprocate. They show me their projects for praise and pointers, overjoyed when I compliment their work (I always pronounce ever project as perfect). But, I am never the recipient of their artistry. Maybe they feel that it’s not good enough, or maybe they feel that I could just make it myself if it was something I wanted in the first place.

I had been quilting and doing my other fiber arts for 10-15 years before I finally allowed myself to purchase that first embroidery machine. I had convinced myself that I just didn’t have time for it with everything else that I was doing. I was both right and wrong in that assumption. While learning the intricacies of machine embroidery and discovering all the free embroidery designs I could find online, my other fiber arts suffered from neglect. But, once I stopped discovering and started stitching, my new embroidery passion enhanced all of my others crafts! I’d call that a win!

Not long after this, and after a huge bout of stocking up on new-to-me embroidery supplies, I realized that I would like to digitize my own designs. While I could find just about anything I wanted to stitch, I like to think that my style is just a bit different, and I wanted to be able to reflect that in embroidery. So, new software and thick manuals once again took time away from my quilting. I forgot how to crochet and cross-stitch entirely. Cooking became a dirty word!

Like many before me, I had the thought that I no longer need purchase beautiful linens or someone else’s embroidery designs. I could do it all myself. And, like all those before me, I was woefully wrong! While I gained the knowledge and skill to be able to make just about anything my heart desired, I still lacked all the time in the world to do it all.

Ten years later, I have a system. I will happily buy pretty linens and clothing if they fit in my budget. If not, I will think about the time needed to digitize similar designs. If I can find something close at my favorite embroidery design gallery, I will humbly succumb to another digitizer’s artistry. It’s all about time, now.

It works great for me. Now, if I could only convey to my crafty friends that I really can’t just make whatever I want and would love one of their homemade hand-painted silk shopping bags or crocheted cashmere scarf, my world would be complete!

Keep Embroidering!

I’ve been looking forward to moving back into my sewing room now that Molly and her almost fully grown, but still quite young, kittens have been moved to an outside enclosure. They took over the room for four months! I have lots of cleaning to do and lots of organizing; I also had even more enjoyment of them living and growing safely while they destroyed the room!

I had planned on doing the cleaning and organizing this weekend so that Monday morning would see me bright eyed and bushy tailed getting some of my backed up embroidery projects done. And, then, my loving husband springs some news on me. The house we are interested in will be vacant in three months. Last time it was vacant, we couldn’t afford it. Now we can.

As a bit of background, we all rent here in Greece. We have a housing office that shows us houses that should meet our requirements. Unfortunately, not all the best houses are always available. We were shown three houses and had a tough decision between two of them. One had everything we wanted except a view and a pool. However, it had modern amenities and plenty of space for my machine embroidery and quilting activities. The second house had the view, but still no pool. We chose it. It wasn’t set up as well as the other one, but we’ve made it work for the past three years. The house we are interested in will be ours if we want it, since the owner has known us the whole time we’ve been here. We won’t have to deal with the housing office telling us it isn’t available (because one of their friends wants it). All of this is in our favor.

Did I mention that the house has a pool and a view! Not to mention a perfect setup for my hobbies and my husband’s, too.

I had just finally gotten settled in my sewing room before Molly had her kittens. I’m just getting ready to get back in there. But, if we are moving in 3 months, I should concentrate on packing. At first, I was really stressed out about it and then I remembered something.

When I set up my sewing room this time, I made sure that all of my furniture pieces were either portable or could be taken apart, or both. I don’t have any large items that will be hard to move as most of them are light enough that I can move them myself. This is a huge plus! And, I still haven’t unpacked most of my embroidery supplies or fabric, and all of my embroidery designs are on the computer, so that’s less packing I’d need to do.

I’ve always been interested in sewing room setup since I got my first dedicated room ten years ago. Besides setting up areas for machine embroidery and/or quilting, it’s important to also have an area for cutting and pressing, and these should be set up at an ergonomically correct height (about 1-2 inches below your bent elbow), whether you stand or sit to do them. If a space needs to do double-duty, it needs to be thought out ahead of time and then tweaked until it works. Nothing should be set in stone!

I love the look of the commercial sewing tables! They are beautiful and look so organized. The truth is that they actually limit what can be done by offering only “stock” spaces. Whether you are trying to complete some large embroidery patterns or put together your latest quilt, the spaces are not big enough. Instead, opt for inexpensive smaller pieces like student or office desks. On average, it’s possible to buy 20 of these and use them how you want for the price of one of the commercial sewing tables. No, I don’t have 20 desks! I have three office-sized ones! Plus some folding tables and small pieces like stacked cubes. Everything on wheels.

And, a great sewing room can truly be put together for very little money! Use items you already have, repurposing where necessary. For a cohesive look, it’s easy and inexpensive to simply paint all the pieces the same color. Add a good desk chair, from the office supply not the sewing supplier, and you’re good to go!

If you set up a room on a budget, it leaves you wiggle room for that new embroidery machine or lots of fabulous machine embroidery designs! You decide!