Have Your Say

Stitching Space, Respecting Space and Tiny Things

What a response we received from our question to the community concerning your personal stitching space! If you still want to share, please write in. It doesn’t matter how long ago the original article appeared; your contribution is always welcome.

Brenda has enough shelves for everything.

Brenda Sandusky wrote to us from the USA to tell us about her stitching space. She was lucky enough to buy a house with a basement crying out to be renovated.

Look at Brenda’s amazing ways of organising!

The result was two fabulous rooms for sewing – one is a creative space filled with supplies and a working area, and the other is all set up so that Brenda can run classes. Brenda is a keen crazy quilter and, as you can see by the fabulous photographs, she’s an amazingly creative lady. Yes, we admit, we’re rather envious of her colourful stitching space!

Brenda working on one of her quilts.

Cristina wrote to us from Italy. She doesn’t have the luxury of an extra room, however her treasured stitching space is in the living room, with a sofa that welcomes her and a lamp and magnifier nearby. She has her favourite DVDs playing and her cat, Theodolinda, snuggling at her feet. She even lights a few candles when her husband isn’t home. It sounds like a blissful location, but Cristina herself sums it up perfectly:

‘My space is a bubble of serenity and quiet; a small paradise where beauty reigns supreme.’

But physical stitching space was not the only kind of space that inspired our readers this week. Elizabeth Braun wrote about a different kind of space – the space between projects. Elizabeth sees the value in putting some space between the completion of one project and the start of the next in order to avoid stitching ‘burnout’. She had a long period where she was stitching one major project after another as her friends all got married. She found herself becoming tired and her interest started to wane.

Aetna’s Bouquet by Helen M. Stevens from Inspirations issue #109

Elizabeth discovered that giving herself permission to take a break from stitching, even a long one, was really important. She observes that, ‘many of us try to force enthusiasm to return, but that’s a sure way to get even further away from where we want to be.’ When she hears her friends bemoaning their loss of creativity, she advises them to be kind to themselves and take a break.

This is such important advice. Stitching skills are not like fitness – they don’t start to deteriorate as soon as you stop exercising them!

Our skills are always there, and although they may get a little rusty, it doesn’t take long to pick them back up after a hiatus.

If the love has faded temporarily, give it time to come back when it is good and ready. That way, you’ll be able to embrace that stitching mojo with all your might.

Finally, Maria Kirk was inspired to write to us after seeing the little doll’s house cushions featured in All Stitched Up! issue #276. It brought back memories of her mother who had arrived in England as a refugee from the Ukraine just after World War II. Maria’s mother loved Ukrainian embroidery and when Maria started making and selling miniature dolls, her mother would embroider tiny carpets and cushions to decorate Maria’s market stall.

A selection of tiny cushions stitched by Maria’s mother.

While it didn’t take long for the cushions and carpets to start selling, Maria’s mother gave all the money she earned to charity, such was her kind and generous spirit. While sadly Maria’s mother is no longer with us, she passed her love of needlework on to her daughter who is an avid embroiderer to this day. You can see the fine work that she produced above as Maria did manage to keep some of the tiny cushions her mother created to cherish forever.

Whatever it is that inspires you, we’d love to hear about it – sharing each other’s ideas helps spark wonderful conversations between our enormous and engaged community of stitchers. Whether you want to send in your thoughts from our latest newsletter or a newsletter from two years ago, let’s keep the chat going while we all stitch together.