Sewing Again

I've made fun of my dad becoming obsessed with his hobbies -- after all, that's the origin of our winery. But I am probably just as bad. Or maybe worse?

Last year I became obsessed with Artist Trading Cards. My garden didn't get planted and my knitting sat idle.

That obsession has now evolved. I've branched out into all sorts of arts/crafts as long as it's all about swapping with other folks via Flickr, Swap-Bot, or any number of private swaps. In fact, now I seem to enjoy doing lots of different things: paper arts (ATCs, artistamps, other mail art), homemade magnets, notecards, hand-carved rubber stamps, knitting... and I've even gotten back to sewing.

Actually, sewing was another obsessive craft I practiced long, long ago (in the dark ages) when I was a teenager. Almost every week I'd make something new to wear when I went out that following weekend. As is with SOME of my obsessions, I got burnt out on sewing. And I basically stopped doing it until now.

After getting into sewing on paper recently (I love it), left, and hand-sewing with felt, I've finally gotten back to sewing something with fabric on my sewing machine. Last week I made a tote bag for a swap on Swap-Bot called "Farmgirl at Heart." The swap called for four (or more) items with a farm/garden theme such as ribbon, buttons, or a tote bag.

I found some great fabric to make the tote bag: a heavy cotton printed with gardening tools like spading forks and shovels, another fun yellow cotton fabric printed with red roosters, and a very heavy yellow cotton canvas.

I've never sewed with a heavy canvas before, but my ancient machine performed well. I was feeling swamped because I'd committed myself to too many things that were due at the same time. But I still enjoyed making the bag. Because of the canvas bottom and handles, it ended up very sturdy. And, of course, I'm already thinking of the next thing to sew!