Why I do what I do!

The lovely Mara from Secretly Stitching invited me to participate in the Around the World Blog Hop, and it has helped me reflect a little about this relatively new, but immensely important part of my life - sewing, quilting and blogging! 

What am I working on?

Although I would like to work on one project at a time I get bored and restless too easily! I am currently working on two baby quilts that I am making as gifts - one is scrappy and came together very easily (you can see it here). The other has taken me many months of embroidery but I have finally started piecing the blocks and hopefully will have the top finished soon.

I have also just last week started to teach myself Free Motion Quilting. Ten minutes practice every day (following the #dailyfmq hashtag on instagram) has been a great motivation for me and I can already see a tiny bit of progress. Happily though I can sense that this is a part of quilting that I will really enjoy and I am loving a new challenge.

How does my work differ from others in my genre?

I don't really think it does! I follow a lot of sewing blogs and friends on instagram and pull so much inspiration from them. I like to use bright colours and love adding embroidery or hand quilting to add a personal touch to what I make. I am a bit of a perfectionist and try to finish off what I create as well as possible.

Why do I write/create what I do?

I create because after 38 years of declaring myself a 'non-crafty person' I have finally found a creative side and a hobby that I can immerse myself in and enjoy. I create as a way of escaping from the harshness of life - as a means of relaxing and unwinding. I create because I love the joy that comes from creating for others - and I most easily express my love and appreciation of others by giving them home-made gifts.

I write as a way of contributing to the blogging community where I have made many friends - I love that I can connect so easily and readily with friends around the world who share my love for fabric and sewing.

How does my writing/creating process work?

I usually come up with who I want to make a gift for first, then search around until I find a pattern or idea that I think they will love.  My favourite part is then choosing the fabric before I sew it together.

Thanks for reading. Next week I have asked Jess from The Elven Garden to share with us. Jess is one of my favourite quilters. I cannot believe the awesome quilting she does on her home machine, and I love her style of improvised piecing. She is also really down-to-earth and has an obvious love for creating beautiful things. Thanks Jess!