I finished up the little pot holder I'm making for a group craft swap. It's in the washer now, having the quilt lines rinsed out. I used a new silver pencil this time, and so far, of all the methods of marking I've tried, I like this one the best.
I have two knitting projects on needles right now. A dishcloth for the craft swap, and a scarf that will probably never be done. Monday night is my first real knitting class. It seems kind of strange to be taking a class after I've been knitting for a year, but I have this thing about not really saying I can do something until I've had at least one class in it. I took my first quilting class last year, and I've been making quilts since 2000 (and wouldn't say I was a quilter until after that class!).
What is it about some crafters that, when we're making a gift, we just don't know when to quit? I signed up for this swap with the intention of making just one gift, and now I'm contemplating a fourth one! I hate this feeling, that whatever I make isn't really good enough, but if I just come up with one more thing it will be so perfect. I do good work, I know I do, but I never seem to think it will stand up in the eyes of someone else. Maye one of these days I'll get over that; I kind of wonder if it's not an age thing. I'm not old enough to have finished work that can be acknowledged as well done.
While I was sewing tonight, I started thinking about my grandmothers, and the machines that they used to sew on. I wonder if they ever thought that there would be a sewing machine that could be hooked up to a computer to download different stitches. I tend to think that they probably didn't think about things like that, and here's why: sewing was a chore. It's easy for me to sit here and think that sometime (hopefully within the very near future), I'll have a computer that's the size of my Palm T|X, and it will be a one stop device: cell phone, pc, gps, programmable remote control (stop laughing!), credit card, everything. But that's because I tend to think computers are kind of fun to have, and I love little gadgets.
When it comes to my sewing machine, when I was in college and really starting to sew for real, I never thought to myself: I wish this machine could have stitches that I've designed myself. If there was a stitch I wanted, I just pushed the cloth around under the needle until it was there. Not consistently perfect, but good enough for me at the time. I never would have dreamed that I could put a piece of fabric in a hoop and plug that into my machine, push some buttons and then come back in 30 minutes to a finished design. I'm sure that even back then the first embroidery machines were out, but they were probably so far out of my poor college student budget that I didn't even see them.
For me, quilting and sewing is a relaxing hobby. I can marvel at all the bells and whistles on my machine while I make something more beautiful than I'd be capable of without it. It's fun to see the light-up screen, and listen to it whirring away, and watching the hoop move around during embroidery is absolutely mesmerizing. Of course, this technology comes at a price. Right now I could take my machine in for an upgrade: for a mere $300 I could add a USB port to my $5000 machine (not something I'll be doing right away, I think they're having some trouble with this). For now I'll stick with floppy disks, I don't think they're going anywhere within the next year.
Anyway, back to my grandmothers. For them, sewing was a necessity, a money-saver, something they did that could allow them to put their money towards something more important. I know that they both made quilts, and beautiful ones, but I'm not sure that they did it because they enjoyed it. I know I tend to spend less time focusing on the fun parts of my computer at work when I'm stuck deep in code somewhere, so I guess I can somewhat relate. But as for my sewing machine, I'm saving up for the Designer SE, with the wireless port! (somebody pick the Russian up off the floor, please...)
Posted by tomiandc at July 6, 2006 09:52 PM