Being creative..

I've started working through TheArtists Way book - a 12 week reflective process on creativity.

Its made me think about my grandma a lot - a very down to earth country girl who had a huge influence on my life.

I've always loved sewing and crotchet. I also knit but not as much. My grandma started teaching me these when I was four.

She would let me play around on the old treadle sewing machine making simple things for my dolls. After lunch she always crocheted, knitted and mended while watching Days of Our Lives & General Hospital. So I had a little blue chair next to hers and she patiently taught me the stitches. The first thing I ever made was a blue knitted square, a blanket for my doll.

I loved it!  I used a treadle sewing machine until I was 16 when I saved up and bought a little Elna with money from my part time job. I made a lot of my own clothes, knitted jumpers for myself & vests for DH when I worked night duty and sewed for my kids when they were babies & toddlers.

But then life got incredibly busy and somehow I just stopped doing anything creative for quite a few years. I think if happens to a lot of women, we just find our days are filled with work, caring for kids, caring for parents and we put ourselves and our interests further down the list.

About 5 years ago I decided to get back to it. I bought myself a new sewing machine and got busy sewing and crocheting for charity. I don't have any grandchildren to sew for and I realised that there are lots of kids out there that don't have grandmothers to sew for them, so its very satisfying to be able to create and then give it away. And I also make things for myself as well.

I used to have a blog for it but I've decided I'll post here now as its a big part of who I am and how I want to spend my time once I retire. At the moment I'm working on making some dresses, some blankets and also just starting on my BOM quilt.  I thought I'd write about it today instead of work which is just not good at the minute. And also I'm working on cleaning out my sewing room which is fun.

So being creative is one of the ways I cope with stress and 'chill out'.  What do you do just because you love it and it relaxes you? Is there something creative you'd like to try or are you working on something right now? Let me know in the comments.