I grew up in a home where making things were a way of life.Both my grandmothers , my mother and my aunts made our clothes, soft furnishings for the home.All of them embroidered and sewed. One Christmas , I remember my maternal grandmother dyed coconut Fiber and made a Christmas tree and my aunt made tons of ornaments from cardboard and cotton.My paternal grandmother had beaded purses and patchwork pillows, thread crochet decorations she had made, all around the house. My mom made a lot of my clothes, often without a pattern.
Two favourite fond crafty memories have stuck with me.
One is rummaging through my paternal grandmother’s beads and making necklaces . The other is,when I was around twelve , my mother taught me the basics of embroidery and we both enjoyed scouring through piles of Soviet Woman magazines to decide on a summer embroidery project I would work on. I embroidered a couple of teapoy covers, a small tablecloth and half saris.
The typical Jill of all trades ,I dabbled in a lot of things but never really perfected any craft I learnt. I tried every little craft I saw in Newspapers and books, I never pursued anything with passion. That is not to say that I did not get obsessed with whatever was my thing at that particular time.
Drawing , painting and colouring were my thing from age 6 .So I drew all the time , coloured with colour pencils, sketch pens and painted with water colour.
Towards the end of my college years, I took a few sewing lessons , and made a skirt , a top, a pant , a sailor neck top and a shalwar kameez but couldn’t get my head around pattern drafting and it felt like my teacher made those things for us. Also, at that time,I was neck deep into fabric painting.
After I got married, I learnt a few things here and there , from my mother in law, my eldest sister in law and my third sister in law, who were all very very creative . A crafty neighbour and J’s friend taught me a few crafts .Again my interest at that time was cooking. I complied all the recipes I had collected over the years and tried new recipes all the time.
Then J and I moved to Middle East with our pre school kid. Only when my son started Kindergarten, did I discover Crochet. I taught myself from picture tutorials online . Annie’s Crochet and Crochet Cabana. I discovered MSN groups and with a lot of hand holding from the wonderful ladies in that group I learnt to read crochet patterns and various stitches . These ladies also sent me yarn, patterns and lots of goodies and encouraged me every step of the way.I was deeply hooked into the craft.
I started with thread doilies and moved on to acrylic yarn scarves,blankets . I taught myself to knit with videos tutorials from knitting help website, but Crochet was my craft of choice and cotton yarn my favourite to work with.
Knitting became a serious obsession only after moving to New Zealand , (and an injury in my right arm,) where I learnt about natural wool ,hand dyed yarn , circular needles and flicking. There has been no looking back after that.
In the meantime I learnt to quilt at a beginners workshop in Kuwait. Choosing fabrics scared me and the colour coordination did not make sense to me then as it does now.
The ability to walk into a quilt fabric store and ask for help , was my impetus for dipping my toes into quilting again.
Recently I took an online quilting class as a refresher. I’m still trying to finish that quilt. Now and again I go back to my old loves and dabble in a bit of embroidery and drawing.
I have a very supportive husband who never complains about my supplies shopping craziness and encourages me to do all the creative things that make me happy.
I’m really excited to have a my own little nook on the web to consolidate where I am at with my projects and share tidbits and the other cozy things my life.
