Some information

Remember when I said I had researched online and run across the site that had the information leading me to my Teacher? I believe that organization ceased to exit, but now there is a group , http://www.sewing.org/scripts/search_tsi/index.php and this is the address that will take any of you others , searching as I was - for a teacher in your area. I deeply appreciate this group of dedicated folks helping any of us find our way to our dreams.

Now that I had found a dedicated sewing teacher - it felt like my life was being reborn. I was on the right track and that first class was already beyond my wildest dreams. We had studied our machines and I was already amazed. We moved on and did a sampler of all the different stitches our machines could do and instead of a mixture of stitches - I saw a work of art? I was amazed that some human before me had come up with the knowledge to make a machine that could do SO many different things that used to be done entirely by hand!

Our next class was about Learning to Read a pattern - O Man- I do believe that they could write encyclopedias on this subject! Even just the envelope contained a map of future events and if you misread it - as I did - I had to go back and buy Another pattern because I had got the wrong size! As usual - if I did not do it wrong the first time - it would be hard to believe I had tackled a project! But, now at least - I had a guiding light - to shine some insight into my dark creative spot and I would not give up in discouragement.


Then with pattern in hand , Lynne explained how you lay out your pattern and you check the piece numbers against the "view" that you have chosen. I was looking and trying to absorb how this process was going to work and I felt completely overwhelmed - kinda like when my son was a little boy trying to learn T-ball and looked at me and said , " I can Never learn how to do this"! I knew exactly how he felt all those years now past. It felt like my mind was captured in a "brain fog" and the pieces of my puzzle were not falling in place and here was this wonderful teacher and I did not want her to know just how dumb her new student was - considering how smart I had been in school - what had happened to me ???? I was really scared Because I wanted this so badly. But Lynne had patience and I could see her angel wings peek out from behind her back - Very Frequently"!!!!!!!!!!!!! Solid and dotted lines, notches, circles , squares , triangles and X's all swooped before my eyes like a imposing army determined to keep me from my goal! Still we marched on!


Finally we finally tackled our first project - a nice simple fleece pillow . What a relief to my over swollen mind! I LOVED picking out that first fabric - after our discussions on Fabrics- That was my first introduction to the lovely world of fleece. All different colors and all so soft and warm and inviting me to love them all , plus an introduction to pillow forms - which I had never met. Class was a mystic experience of cutting the pieces of the puzzle and letting the machine run those magic threads through that wondrous fabric and turn flat pieces of fabric into something that my family and I could lay our heads on! Wow! Of course we made one in class , but I made 10 at home for Christmas presents for all my children and grandchildren. While we were on the subject of fleece our next project was a fleece hat! Can you imagine taking little triangles and sewing them together , adding a band and having a hat! No more going to the store to grab a hat to keep your head warm in the winter! Whoopee! One of my granddaughters was into the black and white racing Nascar flags , so I made her a black and white hat and she was so thrilled because NONE of her school buddies had one like it - it was a one of a kind and I was hoping she realized that it came from a Granny that loved her and thought of her with every stitch that little Brother machine made, hoping to share a part of me with her. I loved the fleece because it was so forgiving with its ability to stretch as you worked the pieces together! I was amazed when I read that fleece was manufactured from plastic bottles that had been recaptured into a new life - how in the world could something so hard - turn into something so soft and enticing?????????