LIBERTY HOMESTEAD

Searching For Inspiration

Last night I visited some old crafting friends. I found them online at Facebook and had wondered what they were doing these days. I'd known them back in the late 1980's and early 1990's when we were all members of a wonderful shop called the Berry Patch in Beavercreek, Ohio. It was a consignment shop of sorts, but we each bought a membership into it so we could sell our handmade goods. Since holidays are just around the corner, I'd begun thinking about how festive the Berry Patch had been during the Christmas shopping seasons. Fran Painter was the owner/manager and always had the best primitive ideas for display. Fran has retired to Tennessee and is now happy and content with her family and grandchildren. She was painting pictures the last time I caught up with her, but was no longer making any primitive items. I visited the Facebook pages of a few of my old friends who were well known for their quilting and other fabric arts and I was happy to see that some of them are still doing what they love. One in particular, Jo Lee Tarbell, an award winning quilter, pattern maker, and teacher, is now 85 years old and still participating in quilt shows and exhibits. Jo Lee had a wonderful shop in the 1980's - The Patchwork Quilt - full of handcrafted goods. Hers was one of the first shops where I sold my own handcrafted items. I still recall how much fun it was to go there to re-stock my own items that had sold and then walk around the old farmhouse-turned-shop. One of the most unique things about the shop was an upstairs bathroom with a vintage claw-footed bath tub filled with  round hand-milled soap balls that smelled wonderful. A small bedroom held a child's iron bed on which were arranged dozens of hand-quilted pillows. Other rooms contained handcrafted treasures, patterns, and country fabrics. I almost always found something to buy and carry home. I remember summer mornings driving home from The Patchwork Quilt and how inspired I would feel, just having been in the midst of all those ideas, books, fabrics, and patterns. I think I'm still searching for inspiration today. I'm not ready to give away all of my sewing and crafting supplies but neither am I very interested in making things right now. Most people I know are in the down-sizing stages of their lives and don't need or want "stuff" to sit around and take up space, while I want to still be in a creative stage where getting up in the morning offers a new opportunity and a feeling of anticipation about what I might make that day. That's how I used to feel every day. I'd see my spouse off to work, make sure my daughter was off to a good day at school, then I'd feed my cats, straighten the kitchen, start a load of laundry, and then retreat to my sewing room to create. Sometimes I'd sew all day, stopping only for a phone call, pausing to finish the laundry, or taking a break to tend to the needs of the animals. Some days I'd bake cookies to have ready when my daughter arrived home from school. I'd take a long break to hear about her day, then get her started with homework and begin plans for supper. After supper, I'd have some items ready to finish so I could join the family as we watched TV. I was happy and felt inspired in those days. I can't figure out what's happened to that enthusiasm. I'd like to have it return, but is that even possible? Time has a way of changing things for all of us. As much as I was happy to know some of my old friends were still sewing and crafting, I was sad to think that some had decided to not continue their arts. It's absolutely a personal decision, but I am realizing that those "old days", those days of having deadlines, making special orders, and creating things to sell at holiday time, were some of the best days of my life. They were busy days, for sure, as I was volunteering with an animal adoption organization, fostering cats, helping out at school, working for my church, and singing in the choir, all at the same time - and I still was able to get a lot of things done. Where did all of that go and why do I now think more about making projects than actually doing them? Maybe I'll have a revival of that inspiration while browsing creative websites or Pinterest. I want to still be creating when I'm 85.