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Falling Back in Love

One of my aspirations for fall is to use the time to creatively heal. Crochet has been absolutely amazing for me this past year, and I am very grateful for how much it's helped me deal with my ongoing struggle with arthritis-induced limitations. Yet I'm still fighting myself and my dislike of how little I can hand stitch anymore, and the fallout is that I'm not quilting much at all.

It's time to fall back in love with sewing, with my sewing machine, with fabric, and with making things from fabric. I don't have to hand stitch to quilt, and I know it.

Fabric still grabs my heart. I have, do and always will love fabric. That's the place to start, because 1) I already have a lot of fabric and 2) I still want to make things with it.

The other thing I haven't been thinking about is how good it feels to work with fabric and turn it into something. I love that, even when I don't hand stitch it. When I made the mat for my nephew's dog's bowl stand last month I used the machine for all the sewing and quilting.

I was really proud of the machine quilting, too.

The only thing I did by hand was baste shut by hand the gap from turning it right sides out. I was tempted to do hand quilting but my fingers wouldn't let me. I accepted that and used the sewing machine instead. I adore that little mat and how it came out. Is it perfect? Nope. Nothing I make ever is. The thing is, for once I didn't regret being unable to hand stitch it.

Quilted projects give me a spiritual boost because I taught myself how to quilt when I was first diagnosed with arthritis back in the 80's. It was in a sense a physical therapy to keep my stiff, painful fingers active, but in the end it turned out to be one of the most positive things in my life simply because it was something I could do despite my arthritis. That remains true even minus the hand stitching now.

Back at the end of August I decided to make every other project something sewn or quilted, and I was somewhat success with that. This month I intend to stick to that goal. Every other project I make will be sewn or quilted using the fabric I have on hand. I want to make another Halloween quilt. I want to have fun. Most of all, I want to fall back in love with the art that saved my soul.

Image credit: pins image by Delyth Williams, rolled fabric image by Mark Martins, crazy quilt image by Chen, all from Pixabay

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