Grand Central

Description

Grand Central may not sound like the ideal sewing space but it truly is my happiest sewing place when the circumstances allow for me to take over our dining room.  In many ways, it is the heart of our home (yes, we do eat nightly dinners there as a family the majority of the time). I like being right there so the kids feel like they can talk to me (and find me) – it allows me to be present and available and, on some days, not have to completely fold my project when they come home from school.  

With my kids’ friends in and out of the house to play, there is more than the occasional curiosity about my latest project and I love being able to show them what I’m doing.  (This doesn’t happen when I am busy in my pseudo-dedicated sewing space – it doubles as our guest room – though I am extremely thankful for this luxury as well.)  

And then there are the summer sewing camps that I just started in our home and – you guessed it – the dining room is our sewing studio.  It is such a happy space when transformed with girls who are most definitely catching the sewing fever and I love it.  One mom even texted me saying, “Jude, [my daughter] is LOVING this!! She’s been jumping up and down since she came home, so excited about it all and excited for tomorrow!!  You are MAGIC!”  It is just simply welcoming these girls into my happy space, encouraging them through the frustrations (and we are well-versed in those as sewists), and letting them experience the magic of sewing when they see this beautiful thing their hands crafted and their creative minds designed. 

I am an extrovert so I suppose “Grand Central” works for my temperament better than someone who is energized by time alone.  However, when it is time to return the dining room to its original state, I am deeply grateful for my pseudo-sewing room – a room where even when I take the first few steps in, it sends happiness coursing through my veins with its smell (you fellow sewists exactly what I’m talking about – is it a new fabric + thread smell?).  If joy had a smell, that would be it.