A Crafty Background

I feel it is time to give you all some background info about the Mama Bear. Don't worry I won't bore you with a long bio. In keeping with the theme of my blog I will stick to my crafty background.

Growing up I spent a good amount of my time with my Memere (my Mom's mother) and my Great Aunt (Memere's sister). They were best friends and since Memere lived with us I was with them quite often. The two of them were always working on some sort of crafty project, usually cross-stitching, crocheting or knitting. They were always taking trips to craft stores and from June to September I got to tag-a-long with them. It's no wonder that growing up around so much creativity I got the bug.

My Mom has been know to do a bit of crafting here or there as well. Usually small projects like felt Christmas ornaments. She has been know to be quite talented with wood crafts. My Dad was a "jack of all trades" and always had to keep himself busy. He was one of those people that was up at 6 a.m. on his day off repairing a rock wall or building shelves for his workshop.

I come from a long line of creators and thrifty types on both sides of my gene pool so it comes in a double dose. My Dad's mother is a mother of 13 and my Grand Memere raised 5 children during the Great Depression so making something from nothing is our specialty. And almost everyone of my Aunts and Uncles has some creative talent be it in their careers or hobbies. We have carpenters, plumbers, painters, sewers, crocheters, knitters, you get the idea. If we don't keep our hands busy we're not content.

So there you have it. As you can see the creative roots run deep in this Mama Bear.

A New Outlet

Ever since I was a little girl I've wanted to learn to sew. My Memere taught me how to hand sew a pillow for my dolls out of scraps when I was about 11. And that was the extent of my sewing knowledge. Well that and reattaching buttons.

Thanks to my wonderful husband, Papa Bear, I recently received my first sewing machine. Along with my machine, which is a Singer Esteem II, I received a sewing basket with all the goodies to fill it.

After I was all set up to sew I took my first trip to the fabric store. I was overwhelmed by all the beautiful bolts of fabric. Being a beginner I had to keep my head about me and just stick to a few cute prints that were on sale to get me started. I can already tell that I am going to become a fabric junkie. My mother-in-law is an avid sewer and had tons of fabric to spare. We took the kids over for a visit and to raid her stockpile. I ended up with 14 yards of various flowers prints.

The first night sewing was very interesting, just learning how to adjust the bobbin tension was a challenge (but thanks to Papa Bear's previous embroidering experience we figured that out quickly) and about an hour into playing with the various stitches I broke a needle! It was a good learning experience.

The first sewing project is an apron. I'm looking forward to getting started. I am preshrinking the fabric tonight so that I can get cutting and sewing tomorrow. Excited to see how it comes out. I need to keep in mind that I am just starting to learn and not be too critical of my work until I get some experience (I can be a perfectionist at times). Can't wait to show it off in an upcoming post.