Doesn't Everyone Name Their Sewing Machine?

So now that we've all had a chance to breathe and relax after weeks of holiday preparation, aren't we all just itching to dive headlong into our next craft project?

I thought I was until last night when I attempted to design and craft a ribbon-y sun tag toy.  Things were coming along quite swimmingly until I realised I'd forgotten two key elements in the creation process - 'make sure you have the correct supplies on hand before you start' (I didn't have any fibrefill and had to resort to using fleece scraps, resulting in a toy with more cellulite than I have) and 'try those forgotten decorative stitches on scrap fabric first'.  Yup.  I botched it.  Not one to waste what was otherwise a relatively decent first attempt for 2011, I limped the project across the finish line and passed it off as a 'special project' for my 9yo daughter.  That's the great thing about daughters - they'll conveniently overlook catastrophic stitching failures in favour of being on the receiving end of something fun from The Magic Making Machine!

So no, not the most auspicious start, but not a total loss.

It also reminded me how pitifully low I am on basic supplies.  I have a small collection of fabric but I'm definitely drawn more toward quirky printed cottons and flannels than sensible, useful calico.  I am not, however, all that keen on giving up my addiction to colour just yet.  Tomorrow, I'm going shopping - but with a difference - stay tuned!

In the meantime, I thought an introduction might be in order.

Meet Hank.

Now, I have no reasonable explanation for why I named my sewing machine Hank.  Especially considering a sewing machine is a rather feminine household addition.  Perhaps it has something to do with that time the blasted machine jammed up in the middle of a special project and in my frustration I thumped the tabletop (hard enough to scatter my pearl-headed pins to the four winds) and barked out the first name - male of course - that sprung to mind.  Nevermind the more likely cause of the disaster was probably user error.  Heh.

Hank has been my faithful companion for the past eighteen months and a pure delight to use after several years of a second hand 18-stitches model of no particular brand.  That machine - with its manual everything - scarred me so badly it took until two months ago before I used Hank's buttonhole foot for the first time.  Hank is smooth, automatic, quiet and he was on sale!

Okay, I'm off to tweak my tag toy designs.  I really wish I'd paid attention in art class...

Plans

Excited.  That's what I am.  It has been many a moon since I've been so focused on creative pursuits.  Well, okay, there were those four years I spent embroiled in a diploma writing course and cursing the lecturers and the education system they stood for, but I'd hardly call that ground-breaking.  Have you ever tried to write 1000 words on copyright law? You see my point.

'Creating' has been in my blood since day dot.  My mother was a skilled spinner and knitter, my father trained in carpentry and is phenomenally good at intarsia (for some good examples of the art form, see here) and my sister draws and sketches beautifully. And, though related by marriage rather than blood, my mother-in-law is a drop-dead impressive quilter and my husband has an eye for photography.  I was always more the wordy type (hence the deluded notion of one day becoming a best-selling author) so you could say I did my weaving with language rather than yarn, but with all these talented people around me, the urge to create is strong.

I can get utterly lost in a sea of fabric and ribbon and lace and felt when I'm in my Craft Cave. Things whir and click and buzz and snip and it still amazes me that at the end of all that chaos and mess something beautiful is produced.

Kind of like childbirth, when you think about it!

(Posts begin 'for real' on Monday 3rd January)

Welcome!

Has everyone returned from the Christmas break feeling revived and refreshed? Or stuffed full of ham and turkey - and, let's be honest, the odd bottle of vino - and vowing to return to healthy eating habits as soon as practically possible?

For me, it's a little of both.

In preparing for Christmas this year, I realised two things.  Firstly, I'd once again ignored my better judgment to prepare for the yuletide season well ahead of time and I subsequently spent most of my spare time in the last two weeks leading up to the Big Day in a constant state of panic and denial.  And secondly, I barely had enough energy, let alone time, to tackle some of the special handmade Christmas projects I'd set aside especially for this time of the year.  And this wasn't the first year I'd come to this conclusion either - every year I say to myself that I'll lean more toward the handmade than the commercial, toward the traditions rather than the havoc.  And every year I run out of time or patience well before I have the chance to get creative.

It occurred to me that maybe I was approaching this all wrong.  Maybe the key to a relaxed, planned, enjoyed Christmas is to start things off ahead of time? And what better time to begin than in January, when ye olde brain still harbours warm fuzzies from recent yuletide glee and there is month after gloriously free month open and waiting to be filled with creative pursuits? Why wait until the 'holiday season' (and the attached panic) begins to hype up in October - or even later?

The more I thought about beginning to prepare for Christmas 2011 now, the more excited I got.  And the more excited I got, the grander my plans became.  I would document my crafty travels, my triumphs and mistakes, the projects that worked and those that flopped.  By golly, I'd set up a dedicated blog! And I wouldn't need to restrict the reporting to my Christmas endeavors either - I could cover all manner of homewares and giftables made possible by the melding of sewing machine, hand and imagination.  Birthday presents, children's bedding and toys, handmade doodads and thingamajigs, new Easter pajamas, sofa cushions - if they could be sewn, I was going to be the girl to attempt them.

And so, armed with a pretty new digital SLR camera lovingly saved for and purchased for Christmas this year, a sewing machine I cantankerously refer to as Hank, and a heady mix of 'this could be brilliant or it could be a disaster', here I am.

I'm not a fabulously experienced sewing machinist (once in high school home economics, I managed to machine-sew my finger to a stuffed frog) but I can generally wander my way through a pattern without losing a limb.  I can't crochet, I can barely knit garter stitch, I'm only a beginner photographer and I generally don't have the patience for individual projects lasting longer than a week (a quilter I am not).  But I'm enthusiastic! And if you read this blog for no other reason than to laugh at my feeble attempts to craft my way through a handmade year, then I've achieved my aim.

Hank, however, may need therapy.