… or why I don’t have sewing goals…
It’s that time of the year when most of us focus on what we would like to do for the coming year – in all areas of our lives. I’ve been thinking a lot about a lot of things lately – which in part prompted the sewing room de-stash and reorganisation (let’s not discuss the horrendous mess it had become lol).
It was during The Great Sewing Room Clean Up that I found a postcard I had purchased in Madrid. It says simply “the chief enemy of creativity is good sense” Pablo Picasso. It got me thinking and I’ve hung it on my peg board.
As a general rule I am a goal-orientated person. I can be fiercely competitive and work myself into the ground in order to defend a hockey goal, meet a work deadline/target or get my children to their various activities.
Despite my relentless drive I have little or no interest in setting myself sewing goals.
Perhaps this is because my motivation to sew isn’t often practical. I sew when a fabric inspires me… I am hit by the urge to try a pattern… I am suddenly obsessed with having a specific garment… all of these things and more. My motivation is primarily creative – not practical.
For me, practical or goal-driven sewing can be stifling. Not inspiring.
So much of my life is consumed by work and family goals, commitments and requirements that I don’t want to be that person here. The blog, or my sewing room, is where those demands, or required behaviours to achieve them, don’t apply. It’s simply where I let things ‘happen’ and that for me is the great joy of sewing.
I appreciate that’s not how it is for others but it’s how it is for me. So I’m embracing that rather than fighting it. It’s no better or worse than any other approach, it’s just my approach.
In 2017 I’ll simply embrace creativity and see where that takes me.
I will sew and blog when I feel the urge.
I may sew fabrics from my stash.
I may sew the jackets which I have traced and have fabric waiting for… but don’t hold your breath waiting for them.
Tomorrow I may pat a fabric that demands to be made immediately into a dress. I’m OK with that.
No hashtags required. Just random sewing.
Right now I’m in beautiful Tasmania. No sewing just picking raspberries, counting echidnas and sleeping.
