Your creative niche

[Unique Christening Gowns]

I would be interested to hear from stitchin fingers' members what influenced your own personal choice of hand crafts ? Is it something you had to learn as part of your job requirements? Did you just happen to "stumble" upon it ? Or is it a God's special gift ?

[sharonb]

I actually can remember a time in which I did not have a needle in my hand.
I must have been 4 or 5 when I learnt to sew and then I remember sitting out on the verandah and sewing dolls clothes and embroidering.
I would save my pocket money for wool yarns and the lady across the road gave me lots of scraps of wool and since she was a dress maker fabrics as well. I just loved to stitch and have done so ever since.
Sounds silly but since even my childhood memories are tied to textiles it is just part of who am rather than something discovered. It's like writing or reading its just something - a skill - but no great revelation just something I do

[Carmen]

I learned very young.( 5? ) I first learned how to embroider. My mom stamped designs on things and I then embroidered them. I was praised a lot and continued it into my teens. This I did not do much with until again in my thirtys and forties. I also learned how to crochet from my mom or grandmother. (7-9 ) I did have to learn how to read directions as an adult. My mom would just tell me what to do. Every row I would get the directions. I did mostly doilies and the stitches repeat around each round. I taught myself to knit in the 1980s after we were married. I have been quilting actively for 10 years. But did know how to sew learning in gradeschool from my mother. Dreaming Quilts : ) Carmen

[Jocelyn]

I first did some embroidery as a young child, but didn;t really do much until I saw a cross-stitch pattern I really liked about 15 years ago. After several years of cross-stitch, I started doing canvaswork (needlepoint), then joined my local embrodiery guild and started to try all sorts of different embroidery genres. I have been knitting since I was about 10, and have tried several different handcrafts, such as macrame, but gave up on them fairly quickly. It's only since we have had internet access (about 10 years) that I have tried handcrafts such as book and journal making, papercrafts etc.

Why embroidery? I have no idea really. I don't enjoy painting or drawing, and I guess I just found that I liked to poke needles in and out of fabric, LOL. I do love the textural qualities of embroidery.

[Liz in Kansas]

I come from a very crafty family and cannot remember a time when I wasn't drawing or something. I started learning needlecrafts fairly young and made my first dress at about age 11 or 12, complete with embroidered monogram. Several forms of needlecraft led to Girl Scout badges and an elderly neighbor taught me to crochet and tat. I have probably tried every textile fad that has come around in the last 40 years or so (yup, even macrame)! My grandmother (hand) quilted and my mother-in-law was a master quilter and teacher, but I did not try quilting myself until both had passed on. Perhaps from a lack of confidence in being able to measure up? I still consider myself a novice quilter.

Around 2000 I picked up a book of doll patterns on a whim and made a witch for Halloween. I then discovered several internet sites with classes and tutorials for cloth doll making. It was like discovering I had been in training for this craft all my life! Every textile skill I've ever learned eventually finds its way into my dolls. I still try all the new trends and I am interested in several areas of textile arts, but it all leads back to cloth figures one way or another.

[Ruth Lane]

I discovered felting about 3 years ago and have really jumped into "fiber arts" since then. I had done some sewing and embroidery over the years but never really got into it until recently. The reason I started into felting was from an article in Cloth, Paper, Scissors about silk paper and embellishing with silk cocoons etc. And I just kept going from there. I love the tactile feel of fibers and the way you can combine so many techniques to create a piece.

[Unique Christening Gowns]

Thank you for your replies :) I must say, it seems our "gifts" are in our genes ! Sharon , I can see both of us share the same childchood ! My great grandmothers and granmothers on both sides of the family tree were very crafty. Seamstresses, knitters, embroidery fanatics .... I am so gratefull for my skills. My creations are my meditation. Here comes a new topic for the forum......

[Judy B]

I cannot actually remember not using needle and thread. I remember watching Mum sew clothes, and sometime early on my grandmother taught me to use a treadle sewing machine. I think I made aprons and pot holders for the church fete, but no real memories until I made some dolls clothes when I was about 10, and remember thinking that the pattern needed to be altered.

By the time I left home I was making all my clothes, then started making rag dolls as gifts, then for sale, after I got married. Dabbled in everything, including macrame (even taught others), knitting and crochet, but it nearly always involved needle and thread, and usually making it up as I went along after I read about the basics. Practised a lot of things by making Christmas decorations because we couldn't afford to buy them, and still make them because I can!

Then a friend asked me to join a patchwork class she wanted to start, and I agreed, but just to make up the numbers. Three weeks into the ten week course I was hooked, and when the friend left town the next term I took aver as the tutor. Mind you, I was only three stitches ahead of the class!

Since then everything has revolved around quilts, like doing some embroidery so I could add small details to applique, and designing and selling small cross stitch kits which mostly depicted quilts and quilt tools, and using my doll patterns as appliques on quilts and making a matching doll.

For me, I know there is no life BC (before coffee) in the morning, and life BQ (before quilts) was just preparation for the real thing.

[Tina Johnson]

GREAT question!

I would love to have creative outlets in other areas and have tried, but guess what, fabric, needle and thread are my gifts. I am happiest when I can hand stitch or use my machine to create. I used to needlepoint and changed my focus to embrodery and quilts-something seemed more utiliarian about those approaches.

My mother was a excellent seamstress and still does do some sewing, my paternal grandmother was a seamstress and made quilts while my maternal grandmother did embrodery. Both of my grandmothers were an influence on me and I credit my love of both arts to them. I can sew clothes, but not like my mom and really that is not where my love of design thrives.

Thanks, Tina

[Miss 376]

I was taught how to knit when I was 5. I can remember making gifts for my mum when I was little, doing sewing and some embroidery. I think seeing all my great grandmothers stiching around the house was a great influence too. I then got into cross stitch when I got a bit older and needlepoint when my mum bought me a kit to do on a caravan holiday. I love trying all sorts of stitching and want to carry on learning different techniques, felting being the next one I hope. I have always wanted to do an embroidery course but have never had the time and the circumstances matching at the same time.

Jane

[U.A.T.]

I can remember being a little girl (which wasn't too long ago i'm only 24!) and seeing my mother's hand embroidered dress. It was a plain denim number with a spectacular bunch of violets embroidered on the left chest. I started to learn to sew when I was child but didn't really get into it untill I was about 12 or 13. Since that time I have taught myself many different handicrafts including embroidery and cross stitch. I've been sewing for a living for a few years now and I can't imagine myself doing anything but sewing or embroidery for, well, ever. I guess I've always been a natural though because embroidery never seemed difficult to me, it just made sense....

[Grace Lister]

I think I was given this love of embroidery as a gift. There hasn't been a day I can remember when I haven't found enjoyment in either working, learning or talking about the craft. I can thank my mother for her in-put when I was a child although her talent was in dressmaking, and my husband for all his encouragement and patience with me when furthering my ambitions in this field. I can't imagine being without a project to do or design to work out. Grace

[neki rivera]

My mother, grandmother and great grandmother were involved doing fiber things, crochet, bobbin lace, cutwork sewing. you name it. So i grew up seeing fiber works around.
Never thought about doing any of it myself, mainly bcse we were taught embroidery and cutwork at school.
Then one sunny summer day as i was crossing the town square in Oaxaca, Mexico i saw some indians weaving. It was like a revelation and i decided i wanted to do that for the rest of my days.i became passionate about it and
i've been weaving and dyeing for practically all my adult life.

neki desu