My Creative Journey

I didn’t get into Sewing Summit originally. At the time my husband was in between jobs (for less than one month) and I wasn’t sure if we could afford the expense of a flight, hotel and conference ticket. I knew it would cost around $1,000, and that is  steep on a one income family. So even though I was heart-broken and upset, I didn’t even try to get a registration ticket. Even though I had a roomie lined up, friends I was excited to get to know, and looking forward to the excitement of spending a weekend with people who share my love of craft, I didn’t think I’d go.

Spring turned into Summer and my family’s life changed. We moved into a larger home, and my partner loved his new job. Someone was selling a ticket on twitter, one of the first to sell their ticket, and I grabbed it with the speed of twitter! I was lucky to get in! YAY! The excitement grew once again! I was going to GO to Sewing Summit and meet all these amazing sewists at SL,UT. My roomie held on with great hope, and we got a fancy room to share. Saying goodbye to my little man for the first time kinda broke me, but the flight was fast and before I knew it I was hanging out with women I had been talking with for months, hearing new accents and laughing together, watching them discuss fabric and purchase new ones they hadn’t seen before. It was an amazing experience.

I hadn’t expected the weekend to go so quickly. I didn’t realize how extraordinarily bummed I would be to return to my job of being a stay at home mom, how much I would miss such awesome new friends!

Now don’t get me wrong, my little man is the best person in the whole planet. There is no greater joy (or hardship) than being his mother and teacher and playmate, but I knew I would miss watching my friends giggle and drink too much coffee and make jokes and sew together! Sew together! We, as a large group, shared our knowledge and our skills. Sewing Summit wasn’t just classes we signed up for and listened to professionals’ lecture. It was strangers teaching strangers, it was bloggers sharing tips, it was friends teaching friends.

I learned so much about sewing knits from Sunni, about altering little girls’ clothes from Carrie, about building a creative team from Amanda, about embroidery from Rachael, about That’s What She Said from my girls Nerdy Sewist, Mermaid Sews, and Sew Your Own Way.

It wasn’t just being there that was so special. It wasn’t the large amounts of espresso or the open sewing times or meeting people (people I have learned so much from through reading their personal blogs.) Sewing Summit stuck with me, is with me, every time I step into my son’s room and see my viking wall quilt, when I slip a needle into my new pin cushion, when I look up from my cutting mat and see my sewing bling.

The first night was fantastic, meeting some of my friends and their very sarcastic and hilarious senses of humor. I now have a need to travel South and find them again, just to laugh and goof off (and eat fried green tomatoes.) The next day was some brilliant classes and learning and sharing stories and stitching together. My extensive note taking!

I loved the hands on classes, working with new patterns and sergers for the first time. However, I also loved the lectures, learning people’s stories,  understanding their point of view.

Sewing Summit was an experience I won’t forget, one I want to repeat again and again.  The creative journey is just too good not to share.

To keep the magic going, a few of us are doing a color palette challenge in November, and hopefully a challenge every month until we can get together again. We have hopes of Quilt Market in PDX, because who doesn’t want to be in PDX? VOODOO DONUT PEOPLE, and ACTUAL APPAREL FABRIC STORES.

So let’s all make a pact and meet yearly, keep our creativity challenged and our friendships close, join together for our own creative journeys.

Love,

MaLora

PS: Join me on this journey, community is what keeps us pedaling (pedal the bike, pedal the machine!)

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