I can’t seem to get this blog post started so I’ll share some photos in the hope that my swirling thoughts will be put into order by the ‘visuals’…

First up is the Crossbody Bag Workshop I held on Saturday. There was a lot of preparation for this workshop, including making three test bags, writing a pattern and oodles of marketing (more about marketing later).

Thankfully the Workshop went well despite my anxieties re. teaching the oddities of inserting zippers, linings and pockets. With just two participants for me to guide we were able to steadily ease our way through the bag making process. The unhurried pace of the day was definitely helped by us having cut out our fabrics and applied interfacings before arriving. As ever it was very satisfying for me to take ‘students’ lacking in self-belief through a creative process to the point where they could delight in what they’d produced and feel confident enough to contemplate future projects.

C’s Crossbody Bag

A’s Crossbody Bag

Aren’t they great! Lovely, practical bags with lots of learning built into the making.

And for the record here’s the bag I made on the day. All the fabrics were from my stash so that’s a win-win for the day!

At the end of the day, whilst clearing up the Hall, I had to confirm to the Manager that I’d be cancelling the Workshop and Sewing Social scheduled for next Saturday, 26th October. I’m not sure why only one person had signed up… Maybe the Economy Block workshop wasn’t of interest, maybe the date clashing with the first day of the school half-term holiday was a deterrent? I don’t know! But I do know I am very tired of the business of ‘putting myself out there’, of marketing workshops, of battling with tech that I don’t find in the least bit ‘intuitive’. My experience of marketing is not great. It’s very time consuming with a return that really doesn’t seem to reflect the amount of effort it demands of my limited brain-power. Maybe I’m doing it wrong? I have spent time and money on courses and invested in the use of various selling and payment platforms. I know the marketing gurus say ‘keep on showing up’, ‘it takes months of being visible before results start to happen’ BUT now, at the end of several years of trying out different tactics to make myself ‘visible’ I am washed-up, more than ready to take a break and re-discover sewing as a hobby.

Autumn is an ideal season to reflect on the harvest, to be thankful for successes, to take on-board lessons from what didn’t succeed, to delight in nature’s signal for us to hunker-down, to wrap up warm, to rest, to gently move forwards through the short days, patiently waiting for new shoots to break through in their own time. I am indeed thankful for all the lovely, creative, enthusiastic people I’ve met through teaching patchwork teaching skills; very thankful for the faithful core who have encouraged me, supported my little ventures and signed up for classes; I’m glad I’ve tried new things even if they’ve not worked out or not been right for me; I’m thankful for this season of Autumn, for the natural transitions prompting me to embrace change and simultaneously enjoy being in the now.

I took a big ‘moving forward’ step today. Finally relinquishing hold of a stack of quilts. Many were quilts I made to accompany classes, others were made to test my patterns, some were just made for the joy of trying new techniques. I really do enjoy patchwork quilting – no surprises there – but there’s a sadness, which had become a burden, to having a spare bed piled high with unused quilts.

These will be distributed by the local branch of Project Linus.

My sewing room, not to mention several more rooms beyond, have become the haunt of many, many yet-to-be-started projects and even more yet-to-be-finished projects. Already I’m aware this break from the preparing and marketing of classes and patterns is freeing up not only time but also releasing creativity. I hope to be sharing more of my projects over the coming weeks, I want to be making, sifting through the projects to find the ones that still fire me up whilst releasing those that have passed out of my creative orbit.

Patchwork quilting should always be an adventure don’t you think?

Allison