Tapping into my creative juices
For the longest time, I thought my younger sister had all the creative genes in the family. She could draw. She could paint, she could sculpt. Everything she created was beautiful. I envied her, but resigned myself to a non-artist's life because everything I tried was a flop. Until I discovered quilting. Then, everything changed.
I love working with fabric. There is so much variety available, and I thrill in using a little bit of all of it. Rather than being coordinated and carefully planned, my quilts tend to be scrappy with a surprising mix of colors and patterns. I love making something that is both beautiful AND useful.
Everyone in my family sleeps under a quilt that I made. Every baby born into my extended family receives a quilt from me. I am sure to donate at least one quilt per year to charity. However, it takes a long time to hand quilt a bed-sized quilt, and I found that I was yearning for more immediate gratification.
When I opened a fiber arts shop, I found my fix - knitting and crocheting. I'm not the fastest stitcher on the planet, but the portability of yarn projects means you will rarely find me without something to keep my hands busy. Now, knitting and quilting vie for my attention, and when I am not actually physically stitching something together, I am likely engrossed in one of the titles in my extensive craft fiction collection.
