As I've said elsewhere on this blog, I've spent most of my life crafting by hand. That's not to say I've ever been without a sewing machine: I inherited no less than three from my mother and last year, in a decisive moment, treated myself to a Bernina 440.
I was determined to rid myself of the feeling that sewing by machine was somehow 'cheating'. Also, I recognised that I needed to get over my sense that I had more control when hand sewing. In all, I needed to just go for it and devote as much time as possible to gaining experience.
Well, that worked, to some extent. This was my first full quilt (oops, quillow) which was completely machine-made. It was for my grandson, who is eight and we all know that boys of that age want nothing to do with anything whatsoever that smacks of girlie stuff, so I tried to make it as boyish as I could. Quite easy, really, since he's a Newcastle United fan, so choosing the colours was a doodle; but what I tried to do was come up with something that would be equally appropriate when he's older, with, perhaps, children of his own to pass it on to. He loved it.
So - how am I getting on as far as the hand v machine issue goes? Sew, sew. I have more or less conquered free style quilting, with the help of marvellous on-line websites and tutorials. I still find myself coming back to the hand work, however - especially if there is any level of stress in my life. I just love the mindlessness/meditativeness of it. I have always felt the same way about knitting - especially formless projects like blankets.
I will perservere with the machine. If only to justify the cost of the thing!
No comments:
Post a Comment