About Me
Hey, y’all! My name is Elizabeth, and I’ve been making stuff since before I was 10 years old. Iām mostly self-taught, using books in the early days. Now Pinterest, blogs, and YouTube are my best friends.
I come by my crafty tendencies honestly. One of my most treasured possessions is a quilt that was made by my great-grandfather and his mother, my great-great-grandmother. According to the family lore, they made it when he was sick as a child – I believe he had tuberculosis but I can’t remember for sure. He was born in 1880, so I guesstimate that the quilt was made around 1890. It’s very worn out now, but I still love it!
His daughter, my grandmother, was a knitter. She made many sweaters, & I still have one that she made. I can’t wear it because the yarn is too itchy, but it’s still special to have! She taught me how to knit when I was 15. She passed away when I was in my mid-20s, so I’m very thankful that I took that opportunity to learn from her while I could. I don’t knit very often, as I prefer crochet, but I think of her every time that I pull out my knitting needles. I remember her having a treadle sewing machine in her bedroom, but I don’t remember ever seeing anything that she’d sewn or quilted. She grew up during the Great Depression, so I’m sure she knew how to sew.
My mom sewed her own wedding dress. I remember a few other projects that she made through my childhood – Easter dresses, curtains, and Care Bears for my sister and me. She crocheted a baby blanket for me before I was born, in a gender-neutral pastel yellow because nobody had ultrasounds at the time to find out “what” they were having. When I was born, my dad worked for a company that printed fabric, so even though he doesn’t sew or quilt, he’s familiar with fabric. I like to say that I have fabric in my DNA from both parents!
My own interest in “crafty stuff” started when I was very young, but I don’t remember exactly how old I was. My earliest projects were purchased cross-stitch kits, crocheted chains because I hadn’t figured out how to make any other stitches, and doll clothes cut from paper and taped onto my dolls – and yes, those “clothes” looked as awful as you’re imagining. š My earliest “quilts” were raw-edge pieces sewn to a background fabric. Thankfully, I don’t have any pictures of those super-early projects! I primarily taught myself from books that my mom had, and when I was old enough to know how to use a library, I checked out many library books about various crafts.
When I was 9, my mom and sister and I participated in a 4H sewing class with some other homeschoolers in the area. That’s where I began learning how to sew on a machine. I made a pink vest and skirt that I wore for Easter that year, and my sister made a light blue skirt. My mom sewed the buttonholes because they were too hard for me, but I did most of rest of the sewing myself, as far as I can recall. (That was “a few” years ago, so the memories are quite vague and fuzzy by now!)
These days, my favorite crafts are still cross-stitch, crochet, sewing clothes, and quilting. I’ve added a few more crafts – my grandmother taught me how to knit, I learned shuttle tatting from a video, and I’ve also learned machine embroidery including digitizing my own designs, hand embroidery, Hardanger embroidery, beading, vinyl cutting, scrapbooking (first on paper with printed photos and now digital), dollhouses, and amateur woodworking. There are a few other crafts I’d love to learn… in all my spare time!! I’d love to learn how to make miniatures with polymer clay, do some stained glass, play around with resin molds, make a few candles, use some broken dishes to make mosaics, try bobbin lace, and buy a 3D printer and a Glowforge and a sublimation printer to make my own puzzles and mugs.
For the non-crafty sides of me, I’m a homeschooling mom of five & a computer geek. I have a daughter and a son that are young adults, one son who is forever-15, and two boys that are still elementary-school aged. I live in North Carolina, USA. I enjoy listening to music, watching TV shows and movies especially in the sitcom or rom-com genres, playing computer games, reading books, building websites, and writing computer programs. I enjoy flower gardening when I have the chance. I dabble in photography but I’m definitely not a professional. I love the Shabby Chic decorating style with a dash of farmhouse and a smidgen of the 1990s country decorating style (I love that the old country geese are popular again!), and I really love the “cottage core” or “grandma core” decorating styles that are popular right now.
Thanks for reading this far, and please enjoy your visit to my site!
— Elizabeth