Why I blog

I follow the amazing blog of Zack Reyes, More From Your Blog. I subscribe to his newsletter and get little neat emails with tips for my blog. I am so happy to have stumbled upon his work; it has been very useful as I have been shaping my blog.

Last week's newsletter included a question which got me thinking all week on how to answer it. WHY DO YOU BLOG? When I first read it, I immediately thought I have no idea how to answer this. As the week went by I kept thinking about it and planning for a good answer. I loved the email. I loved the question in my head. I really had not given it a conscious thought.

I came up with not one but several reasons.

1. BECAUSE I LOVE TO SEW

 Well if I like to sew, why spend time writing instead of sewing you may ask. Well, I am hooked on sewing and learning. I find myself sometimes amazed, overly excited and super happy to find a new technique. You should have seen me when I learned to bind a round quilt. When the lady at the quilt shop said all you have to do is cut the fabric on a 45 degree angle to give it room to move, I was lost in awe. I thought it would be neat to share what I have learned with someone out there who might enjoy the feeling of discovering how to make something.

2. TO ANSWER PEOPLE'S QUESTIONS

I usually sew for other people. I keep the learning and the experience and give away the materialized project. I love it! It is so rewarding and so motivating to sew for someone else. One of the responses everyone gives me when they receive their gift is the question, "how did you do it?" or "why can't we see the seams on the inside?" I try to explain, but to someone who doesn't sew it probably is gibberish. I figure I could more easily explain it to them here on a blog.

3. IT IS THERAPEUTICAL

As I mentioned, 99% of my projects have an owner in mind already. I live far away from where I grew up, from where my roots are. I am happy where I am now, but do miss people at times. This is a way I found to calm and warm my soul and love all those people I can't see as often. Any given project takes me at least 10 hours. A quilt takes me anywhere from 20 to 40 hours to make. Imagine that! All the hours I have to dream of all the possibilities this gift can bring to a loved one. While I sew, I'm also thinking, day dreaming and remembering old times. Sewing keeps the monsters in my head away. I thought it would be neat to write about the positive thoughts I have while sewing a new project.

4. TO IMPROVE MY WRITING

If you are bilingual like me, you know the challenges I face. There are gaps in my education from all the bouncing around from school to school I did as a child. The price to achieve fluency in two languages is high, achievable, but high. I call myself "half bilingual"; husband laughs at me every time. I have acquired half the information in each language. I struggle with reading and writing at an academic level in both languages. This blog will help me develop these much needed skills, along with enlarging my vocabulary. As my mother, a retired grade school teacher, would say, "how do you learn to read?... by reading, and how do you learn to write?...by writing".  

In addition to these reasons I want to find out where this blog takes me. Who knows, maybe I'll sell my projects, make new friends, or inform old friends on how I am doing. Maybe this blog dies in a few months when I go back to school and am trapped in a routine of classes, homework and internships. However it turns out, I am enjoying my time off by expressing myself through sewing and this blog. I hope you are too!

Picture from my lovely rainy weekend for your entertainment