The importance of passion

At this time of year I find the lists start to overwhelm me. Lists of to-dos for life, lists of to-dos for the kids, lists of to-dos for Xmas and the lists of crafting that fit in to each of those categories. And I find what happens is that I freeze up and kinda stop making. My production (that is normally fairly ongoing because I stick to my lists) slows to almost nothing and I wander about the house and my sewing room a little aimlessly. It's almost as if I have nothing to do when in fact it is the complete opposite.

Hang on a sec - it has been an hot day here and I might grab a beer to keep me company....

OK. Better. So to illustrate my point, on my crafting list at the moment are 

Must dos

• Three pairs of kid shorts from Happy Homemade with the fake fly and pockets (as opposed to the 1hr plain ones)
• Three pairs of matching Xmas pyjamas
• Two frocks for my darling niece
• The birthday dress for my middle small. Her birthday is just two weeks before Xmas which always ups the ante.

Should be done

• A cardy needs to be finished for my SIL
• The almost finished wedding present for my very good friend who got married 2.5 years ago
• Mending etc etc etc.

Just for fun

• A dress for me
• Another scrap cardy for the small (who needs another cardy - not)
• Blah blah blah blah. This list goes on and on and on

Even reading the paragraph above makes me start to feel a little traumatised. Crafting suddenly becomes a chore due to the weight of "have tos" and "should really's" and the "want tos". What is funny about it is that I really want to do all those things. The only reason they are on the list is because I want to do them....and I even have time to get them all done by their deadlines. But not if I don't shake this thing I have going on - the not-doing-ness, the lack of inspiration, the overwhelm, the not knowing where to start. It is a disease.....

So what to do. The answer for me is one that I haven't consciously come up with. So it isn't my idea but it is what happens. Suddenly something snaps. Some 15yr old I-wanna-do-what-I-wanna-do angst comes flying out of my soul, I pick up some materials and decide to craft something completely random. Something that isn't on the list and hasn't even been pondered to this point. 

Case in point. In the last month there have been two.

Project 1:

A hat. What is so odd about that I hear you say? Nothing except that we are heading in to summer and I already have about 5 knitted hats. Today was 27 degrees - (about 80 for those of you who like your temperatures in F) - but this is what I threw in the bag on the way to camping. Random. Who wants to do a tubular cast on while bush camping with no access to the internet to remind her of how to do one - me apparently. What makes it worse is that I am not even sure that I like the colours...

Project 2:

Patchwork. Same deal as above - what is so odd about that? The biggest thing is a little bit tricky to admit - I don't really like doing patchwork (sssshhhhhh!). I really like it when other people do it, it can be just stunning! but I don't enjoy it myself. On the particular day in question I had many other hideously boring things to do like vacuum and make (another) (nutritious) dinner. I was feeling a little antsy so gave myself 25min to play. I had seen an instagram photo from the lovely Arounna from Bookhou the day before and felt inspired to do some linen patchwork. Random. And the thing is that once I started I couldn't stop. Or rather my 15 year old self didn't want to stop. I took the kids out to takeaway for dinner, didn't vacuum even though we had guests arriving and did my first ever log cabin. I have no idea what for....

But that is the thing about crafting and passion. When you have lost it, sometimes you need to do something random to get the juices going. For some people it might be walking away completely or doing a different-to-you craft, but for others it might just be to start something new. In my case giving myself the space to follow a couple of random ideas which weren't on the list meant that I felt a little bit of freedom. Free of the lists and the have and should and want tos. Free from the responsibilities of life which allowed me to just Craft. Y'know?? And that little bit of freedom seems to have been enough to get me back on the crafting horse. I cut out two pairs of kid shorts last night and they are already 1/3 sewn up.

Bring on the passion!

Anyone else out there a bit stuck? What do you do when you are feeling crafty list overwhelm or just a loss of your passion? I'd love some more ideas....

Felicia x

Some housekeeping and a sponsor thank you

So just a couple of housekeeping things before I get to the saying thank you part of the post.

Firstly I wanted to let you know that I am going to try to update the blog twice a week moving forward - Tuesday and Friday. It may or may not happen but I thought it would put it out there to get the intention flowing. Wish me luck!

Secondly I'm planning on (finally) doing a full post about The Craft Sessions October 2013 retreat next week. Siri Hayes, a lovely crafter who I am lucky enough to call my friend, also happens to be a photographic artist. She agreed to help out on the weekend by taking some photos alongside me - some very pretty photos to show you next week from the two of us.

The final thing is that I wanted to let you know that we would be filling you in on dates and plans for next year at the start of December. We are already having fun dreaming up what comes next....so join our mailing list to be the first to hear.

Thank you sponsors!

A gift bags were ace! I know that that probably isn't the right thing to say, but I was just so thrilled when all our lovely sponsors jumped on board and provided us with the prettiest stuff.   We were all very lucky not-quite-campers.

Organic bread bag from Organic Gertrude

First we had a beautiful organic cotton bread bag or vegie bag which held all the loot. These were kindly donated by the loveliest Claire from Organic Gertrude.  

We were then lucky enough to have Lara from Ink and Spindle donate a whole print run's worth of fabric to us in a custom The Craft Sessions colourway. I am so in love with this fabric - it is simply stunning!!! Have a look at their super new website. You can design your own colour way. Very fun and so very generous.

Next up was a discount voucher from the lovely Lisa at Tessuti which came on a very pretty card. And a gorgeous softie print from Lisa at The Red Thread - so cute. 

Sunspun kindly donated a ball of Rowan Felted Tweed along with a super cute cuff that suggested patterns you could make with your one ball. Amy, who is the new owner of Sunspun, also kindly brought a whole heap of gorgeous things that they are no longer stocking in the store and just let us pick what we wanted. 

Next up we had a discount voucher from The Fabric Store. They also donated two $100 vouchers which we gave away on Saturday night - names-in-a-hat-style. One went to the lovely Bridget who had a birthday the next day which made me happy.

Morris and Sons donated 50 different colours of their new 4ply 100% Australian yarn. I think there are 62 in total - so many colours my kids were quite astonished when I tipped them all out ready to pack. 

My very good friend Mara from Printspace - who designed our logo - custom designed and donated an exclusive The Craft Sessions 2013 "I Craft For Joy" print. We gave these out as a parting gift when people were leaving. A little something to take home. 

We were also lucky enough to receive some raw organic chocolate from Loving Earth. It got lost in transit and arrived a bit late but we have managed to figure out a way of spreading the luvju love...

And finally there was a handmade gift from us. A needlecase (sewn by me) made from Ink and Spindle or Maze and Vale fabric. Big enough to fit a little pair of scissors and some pins and needles. We will be putting up a tutorial in the next few weeks that shows you how to make one. So check back my friends, if that is of interest. They make super gifts. 

So thank you Sponsors for the gift love! What a great way for our participants to start the weekend. 

Felicia x

Mistakes are how you learn...

One of the things that was discussed a lot on the weekend was making mistakes. People's fear of them. How demoralising they were and how much tension trying not to make mistakes caused. How annoying it was to rip stuff out and how people didn't try things for fear of doing it wrong.

And I felt so chuffed we were talking about it. When I first was thinking of why I wanted to put this event together I wrote a list of things I wanted to say. I'm calling it our manifesto. And one of the main messages I wanted to get across is about mistakes.  

"Making mistakes is how you learn, so embrace them - they are also often very pretty." 

In my initial email to some of the teachers at The Craft Sessions I wrote the following 

"One of the big drivers behind this event is teaching people craft in a way that is not stuck on technique. Helping them to get over the idea of "doing it perfectly" or "doing it right" because I think this means that people are scared to have a go for fear of making mistakes."

I think that there is a tendancy out there in blog land to post pictures of the pretty things people have made - which is great, because I love a pretty picture - but when we surf the web looking for inspiration I sometimes feel like we look at other people and only see their sucesses. We don't see all the little errors that make the thing handmade because they aren't being pointed out to us. It leads to comparison and also the idea that there are craftspeople who make beautiful mistake free work. Which they don't.  They just don't necessarily post pretty pictures of their mistakes.  And the idea goes a bit further - that we learners or non-perfectionists or crafty dabblers are not capable of making such beautiful things. Again there is the idea that the person must be "so talented". But instead I think that we just aren't seeing the whole process. It is just a snapshot of pretty without context. 

See that distortion in the top rows of colourwork. Again me ignoring rules I already know. Knit your colourwork as loosely as you can. Loose! Otherwise your work will distort. By the time I realised how bad it was I was too lazy to rip it out. The lovely Martine told me that she likes that row as it looks like old school Atari or Pacman. Not sure how I feel about this. But I left it in. And I learnt. Loose!

Maybe to make the pretty thing on their blog they have thrown four muslins in the bin. Maybe they didn't take a photo of the pants that they threw into the bin when the shape was soo super bad they were unwearable, and instead took a photo of the successful pretty pants (this was me!). Maybe they can't show a photo of the three times they knitted the same neckline of that perfect sweater in order to make it work (again me!).

Everyone makes mistakes. Embrace them. You learn stuff.  

One of the reasons I have loved and followed Elsie Marley's blog for so many years is due to this post with pretty pants. You see the pretty pants, you scroll down and then she shows you the waistband. So encouraging. I love that she didn't unpick it. She just said "play on!"

There should be more of it - and by that I mean more visibility of the process and the disasters. 

Everyone is different in how they approach their craft and how they learn. Some like to play by the rules and some don't. Some want a perfect outcome and some don't. Sometimes it's about the context - the craft needs to be more perfect than other times - for example a wedding present rather than a pair of kid pyjamas. And I think that some people are more about the end product than about the process which means that mistakes often just feel like setbacks, which effects their willingness to make them. 

The lovely hatching on the linen runs vertically and horizontally, which beautifully shows just how distorted my stitching has made the linen. Would get you a better photo but it is late. You can see it in the top two rows of stitching that are in focus. It is much worse in the middle of the quilt.

For me personally - in order to really "learn" something I need to test it out myself. I know  that you need to start in the middle when quilting and quilt to the edge. I know that when you don't do that the fabric distorts and you get a lumpy quilt. And yet, when it came to the making of the pretty quilt in the picture I still tried to see if I could outsmart the rules. Like they don't apply to me ( I truly was such a fun teenager!?!). My thought process goes along the lines of "so if I try really really hard to make it straight then it will be straight". Yep - see I proved to myself beyond a doubt that "you can't outsmart the linen". The linen distorts and then kicks you again by showing the distortion. But I tried and tried again. Three different ways in a single quilt and each time resulted in a mistake that I decided I could live with. One of the lovely participants at the weekend looked at my quilt after hearing all about the mistakes and said "but surely you could just unpick that". My reply "I could but I am a really really lazy crafter and I can live with the mistake". I learnt something from making it. I like that the mistake is there as it reminds me, and will remind me for years to come that "you can't outsmart the linen". (....and possibly that I should pay some attention to the rules some of the time?)

And I found a better photo. Look at the hatching wander back and forward across the quilt.

I really truly believe that the best way to learn is to get stuck in. To try, sometimes succeed and sometimes fail. To rip out the mistakes you can't live with AND to live with the mistakes you can. Making mistakes means that you learn about structure, process, what you like and what you don't and where your tolerances are. Looking back on the mistakes you have left in reminds you later of the journey and how much you have learnt.

To prove the point I've posted a couple of my latest "mistakes" above. And before you kind women say anything, yes, I know they are still pretty. That is my point! Mistakes are part of the process - the part where we learn things about our craft and about ourselves. And they are often pretty. How super is that!

What do you think? Mistakes - love them or hate them? 

Felicia x

The Craft Sessions - Part 3 - We made!

My apologies for the break in blogging. I went on a much needed holiday, bush camping for a week with the small people, and thought I would be able to blog around it but it was not to be so......I have been known to engage in an unrealistic expectation in my time.

So today I wanted to show you some pictures from Leslie Keating and Melissa Wastney's classes. So many beautiful things were made. So many! .......

Scrap that. I think there are just too many pretty photos, and after trying to write this post for half an hour and only covering block printing I think I am going to have to break it up into more posts. 

So starting again...today we will be looking at some pictures from Leslie Keating's Block Printing and Freeform Patchwork classes. 

On with the show..... 

Block Printing with Leslie Keating

People loved this class. First time for most of them printing on fabric and they loved it. Did I mention that there was love?? 

And Leslie - well she was just an enthusiastic supportive bundle of joy! She loved it as much as they did.

The lovely Leslie

Leslie Sorenson's lovely work...she is halfway through....it got even better. 

Jenny in action doing a gorgeous fan print

Freeform Patchwork with Leslie Keating

So my friend Siri did this class and I don't think she would mind me paraphrasing what she said. I found her later in the afternoon, wagging her afternoon class so that she could keep doing more on her freeform patchwork quilt top..... She said something along the lines of "So I went in with a clear plan of what I wanted to do ......but then I realised within a minute or two that that wasn't what the class was about. I took a moment, went with it, and now I LOVE it. I can't stop, it's totally addictive. And so freeing!! So much fun."

Leslie brought baskets of scraps to use - so much joy!

One of Leslie's class samples which I really wanted to run off with...

Siri's lovely work

Go and have a look at Leslie's website. Her fabric is just stunning! We were so lucky to have her teach. 

I'll be back again soon with some more - promise! 

Felicia x

The Craft Sessions - Part 2 - Why you came!

Wow! - so I am trying to unpack today and I just found all the "lanterns" (very very loose term obviously) we made on the first night.  For those of you that weren't able to be there, I'll fill you in on what I am talking about. After we arrived on the Friday evening, settled in and had a drink and some dinner, I introduced myself, the event and the teachers. While this was all going on I asked that the participants write down their reasons for coming on some paper we had prefolded and ready to be made in to lanterns. I was expecting a word or maybe two - some of you wrote a mini essay! 

We were asked more than once during registration if people could come for just a day and we gave the same answer - we really want this to be about more than just learning some new skills. We want it to be about connection and community so it was an all in deal. The "wow" is for why you came - you wanted it to be about more than just some workshops too.

Here is some of what you said...

"To get in touch with my creative side in the company of inspiring individuals." 

"To hang out with people who share the same obsession. To network, to share, to have fun, to have a weekend away!"

"To enjoy the experience of sharing craft with other crafters create, escape, share, unwind and commune."

"An environment of learning, sharing and inspiration - perfect" 

"Quiet time in a different community" 

"I have always loved craft so my interested was peeked immediately, but I also was very excited to spend a weekend with like minded people." 

"My goal to hang out with people that know how to do stuff. I wanted to learn, while meeting people who like doing the same stuff as I do. Old school craft in new school ways." 

"I came to Craft Sessions with the hope that I would meet and make friends who craft, because I honestly don't have any knitting friends!" 

"Talk 'craft' without putting people to sleep." 

"I am here to meet like minded people and learn some new techniques." 

"To meet, to learn, to be inspired, to create the masterpiece." 

"Collaboration with inpiring women." 

"To reinvent my creative self." 

Reading them today as I unpacked made me realise what we achieved. All of you came with this willingness to meet new people and connect. That was so very apparent by the atmosphere that was present the whole weekend. So many of you took a risk and came without knowing anyone - so impressive! And it paid off - it was such a welcoming atmosphere.

I feel lucky to have been able to have been a part of it. 

I'll be back later in the week to show some of the beautiful things that were made at The Craft Sessions. Do you like what you see so far? 

Felicia x