The things I've learned...

In my quest for improving my crafty goodness, I've learned many things...First off don't rush the process. It takes time to develop your own style. No one becomes a "pro" over night, it takes time, practice and patience.

My early works as a scrapbooker make me want to cringe. I grabbed just about every tool I had at my disposal and used it, making/creating what I refer to as some "eyebrow raising layouts" to say the least. But over time I developed my own style and have kept with it. Am I influenced by the work of others? Once upon a time I could say yes, but now I'm very comfortable with my own style- the one that I took my time to develop. I prefer clean lines and limited embellishments and not that hodge podge collage mess I see so many other doing now days- it's too chaotic looking for me and it tends to make you look all over the page and in the process it tends to lose focus on the important stuff -the pictures.

Card making and stamping- I have fun with this craft too! There's so much out there, many more great techniques than when I first started card making 13 almost 14 years ago, and my rubber and acrylic stamp collection and ink pad inventory proves it, LOL! I see where this can be a bit overwhelming to those that are just starting to get interested in making their own greeting cards.

Quilting and Sewing- I've been a sewing since I was 8 years old and still love it! I'll put sewing on the shelf for a while and go on to one of my other passionate hobbies, but it's always something that I come back to doing. There's something to be said about making something with your own two hand, you know the quality of your own work :-) I started making window treatments out of sheer necessity. Couldn't find what I wanted in a fabric that I liked in any catalog so I decided to make my own. And now 17½ years later here I am. Can I make clothes? Yes, and I do form time to time makes clothing, but I prefer to make other function things. The quilting bug has bitten me and good! I'm glad that I've waited this long to get into quilting, I feel that my years of experience sewing clothing and window treatments has aided me tremendously. The hardest part of quilting was tackling the terminology, after you get that figured out the rest comes pretty easy! The real fun for me now is the acquisition of all kinds of different sewing feet and playing with them :-) I had many different kinds with my old sewing machine and the only one I kept was the ruffle attachment (I can use it with my Janome). Oh all of the sewing feet I miss from my old machine I have to say that I miss my hemming foot the most. I'm now looking into purchasing the hemming foot set for my Janome HT2008, I know that I'll use them quite a bit as I'm getting really tired of using a seam ruler and doing the ¼ inch turn and pressing with the iron (my finger tips are tired of being scorched).

Embroidery and Counted Cross Stitching- Two fantastic hobbies that I adore! I learned how to embroider when I was a young girl. I was a newly wed and we were stationed in Maine when I took my first ever hobby class- I learned how to do counted cross stitching- it's been a passionate hobby for me ever since! I stitched like a crazy woman until I discovered Scrapbooking. Needless to say my stitching sat on the sidelines while I dove into scrapbooking, then came Susan. Oh my word this woman is an enabler! My stitching is no where near her level of excellence, then again I refuse to stitch on linen and Susan has no fear of stitching on super fine count fabrics. I met Susan while we were stationed in Virginia. Susan took me to various needlework stores in our part Virginia. Through our store outings she introduced me to Weeks, Gentle Arts Sampler threads and the Caron Collection all are the most beautiful hand dyed threads on the planet and cross stitching has never been the same for me since! Discovering these threads and seeing first hand how they approve the appearance of just about every and any needlework project- well it made me fall in love with stitchery all over again!

Cooking- I've always been one to be creative with food. As odd as it sounds I love to cook! Many of my friends just prefer to do anything else but to be in the kitchen, but for me I feel right at home. When you really want to know the ins and outs of making certain dishes, take a cooking class! I did this with many kinds of things- pastries, breads and even some ethnic dishes. I feel that it's helped me to develop my own kinds of specialty dishes that my family has come to think of as main stays in our household.

My recommendation when starting any new to you craft (yes cooking is a craft that needs to be honed)- take a class! Be it on line or a local shop or store. It all starts with the little seed of knowledge and grows from there.