During the time that I lost my sewing mojo, I kept thinking about what I can do to bring it back. Loosing your sewing mojo, could be due to many different reasons. It could be stress in other areas of your life, being stuck inspirationally, frustration with a certain stage that you are at in you quilting, just to name a few.
I am not 100% why I lost my mojo, but two things that stuck out for me as possibilities are, first I had so many other things around here that had to be done, that I really didn't have much time to play with fabric, because if I did, I felt guilty that I wasn't doing what needed to be done (primarily our move and the renos).
For this problem, I still have to work at getting over it. I continue to tell myself that having some time to myself is good for me and my mental health. My body isn't getting any younger either, so it needs the rest from strenuous work that is required for doing the renos. I am still working on this, self talk.
The second thing was the location of my sewing room. I know I shouldn't complain in this area, as I know that some people do not have the luxury of even having a sewing room, but for me, my creativity is stifled when my surroundings are not restful for my sole.
It happened before, when I had my sewing room in the second house, down in the basement, where no one went. I am not a social butterfly, but I do need to be close to what is going on in my household. At that place, when I moved my sewing space, upstairs to the dinning room, that we didn't use and I was closer to the action of the household, I was in my element. It felt right! I forgot about that, as much time has pasted since, and when we moved to this place.
When the thought came to me....I thought.....but I like the room I have.....I made it cozy..... But after I really thought about it, I realized that I had isolated myself in a room, at the far end of the basement, away from everything. Nobody came to this room unless they needed me for something. If I wanted to take a bit of time to sew, it felt like a trek to get there....the trek part is a bit of an exaggeration, as my house, being a bungalow, is not all that big, but mentally, it felt like I was going far far away. Your mental state is very important, as it's your "mojo".
I was thinking a lot about this, during my 10 hour ride, both ways, to and from a funeral. That is when you really realize that life is short. Together with being upset about loosing my mojo, I seriously gave it some thought. I had to make some changes.
To help me deal with the events of the funeral, I emersed myself into coming up with a solution to my lost mojo. I really needed my sewing time to decompress and balance me out. So, I started packing up stuff. Putting things away. I decided that I was going to move myself out of the back room of the basement, which felt like I was being punished and put in the corner. I moved myself to the main part of the basement, which was at the time, the rec room/TV/media space. It was large and under utilized and at least it got traffic with members of the household passing by on the way to other things.
Once I made that decision, it felt right!
The space is still rough and some renos still need to be done to finish the space, but now that I am not cramped, I feel better. Just seeing members of my household passing by and now, often just stopping to chat, makes a world of difference. I need my people time....lol....a term used with dogs. They are "pack" animals....I guess I am too! Funny how I never thought of that before...until now. What a strange thing to realize. I need to be close to my pack.....lol.
This is my new space. As mentioned above there is a bit of work that still needs to be done, but I like it so much better already. Above is my sewing machine space. This is the alcove that I previously had the TV on the wall and DVDs surrounding it. I like it better now. The floor on the right, will need to be finished, but I can't do that until I fix the issue with the free standing gas fireplace, not seen in the photo to the right. My design will will have to be smaller, but that's ok, as I now have more floor space to lay thing down on the floor, if I really needed to. My husband is working on getting me an industrial track, that I can hang a design board to and can move it out of the way, if I need to access the closed behind my design board.
This is to the right of the first picture, which shows that gas fireplace. As you can see, my temporary design wall/sheet, is being held by the sliding doors of the closet. This is where I sit to look around and be inspired, while having my cup of tea. I now have a bit of room to breath without feeling cramped.
Behind my green chair is the divider/cupboard that I use as an ironing board for larger pieces of fabric. It holds my fat quarters, bins of scraps and other miscellaneous quilting items. Behind that is my longarm space. I get a lot of light in that area, as I have two windows on either side of the room there. My storage room is the door on the left, were I keep all my extra quilting stuff for both the business and for personal. In the forefront of the picture is the space to use the floor as a design wall.
Just over to the right in the last picture is this space. This is my cutting table and drawers where I keep my strings, cut strips, crumbs and a couple of UFOs. This is also where I hang my wall-hanging of the month. This one is for November, though as I don't have one yet for October, I use this one now too.
I've now had my new sewing space, set up for just over a month. I like it! I am not sure if my sewing mojo has come back 100%, but I am sewing and I am more excited to go down in the basement to sew.....so I am going to say, that given a bit of time and more work on the first issue listed above, I can see my mojo heading for a full recovery.
As Angela Walters' saying goes.....Quilting is my therapy.... I whole heartly agree with her. I even bought a t-shirt from her website with the saying on it...lol
Sorry for the very long post. I just needed to get this all down. Musings are important. If you are still here, thank you for your patience and my usual closing of 'don't forget to take some time for yourself'.....well I mean it!!! You need it!!!!
IT IS IMPORTANT.....YOU ARE IMPORTANT!!!!
Take care everyone.
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
No comments:
Post a Comment