Close your eyes and think back for a minute to Junior High and High School. Think about all those classes you took, all that homework you did, all that stressful cramming for math quizzes and biology tests.
Now try to remember a project you did for school. Not just any project, but your favorite project. Something you got really into, you worked super hard on, and you were really proud to present on the day it was due.
Got something? Okay good.
I'm going to bet that the project you have in your mind right now was open-ended. Most likely it was on a topic of your own choosing and maybe it was even structured in a unique way that you devised yourself. You probably created materials for the project, maybe even did some original research. It was, I'm betting, creative in some way and wasn't like anything the other kids in the class presented.
Am I right? I'm betting I am because these kinds of projects, the open-ended, complex, creative kind, are the projects in school, and in life, that mean the most to us. They are the antithesis of filling out a worksheet. They are wide open, an outward expression of our inner self, an original creation uniquely our own.
The feeling of accomplishment that comes with that sort of project stays with us. How long ago was it that you turned in that assignment? 10 years ago? 20? 30 or more? And the pride is still there.
Sewing for me is a creative medium through which I can get that feeling every single day. Ideas for what to make spin inside my head while go through my days changing diapers, cutting apples and cubes of cheddar cheese, sweeping the floor, folding 25 pairs of kid's socks, packing snacks, unpacking backpacks, and in the minutes right before I fall asleep at night.
When I sit down and begin to transfer those ideas into my sketchbook, and then sew them from fabric and thread that fantastic feeling of open-ended creativity returns to me. It's a natural high. The satisfaction of holding the finished toy is like nothing else. Getting to this feeling is one of the reasons that I love sewing.