Who Me? Intimidated? No Way!

I have to confess: my sewing machine intimidates me. I don't know why, because I realize it can all be ripped out. This philosophy helps me conquer my knitting fears (oh, the joy of frogging) so I don't know why the seam ripper doesn't calm my fears of turning on the sewing machine, but it doesn't. However, it was on my life list for this year, and I'm running out of months before I have to talley my accomplishments.

My dear friend Chrissie sent me her sewing machine about a year ago, and there it sat. Taunting me. In October I signed up for two sewing classes through the public school adult ed programs. The first was a one night class to get to know your machine. The second was a multi-night course to do home decorating sewing. I went to the one night class and felt a little more confident when I left. Unfortunately, the other course was cancelled because of lack of participants. And still the sewing machine sat. It continued to smirk and laugh at my fear.

But I'm leaving town very early Tuesday morning, which means that Sunday was the perfect day to pull the sewing machine out and get over my intimidation, right? Well, anyway, that's what I did. And of course I waited until I was home alone, and Lisa wasn't even around to help me figure out my mistakes. Why make this easy on myself?

But the amazing this is that I did it! I wound the bobbin, I threaded the machine, I figured out my settings and I finally sewed. I even changed a needle when the one in the machine when I got it out of the box finally bit the dust. I fixed the situation when my bobbin got off course and thread was knotting up. I even considered my options for raising the presser foot. Nothing stopped me!

And I even produced the product I wanted to make. It's a coil bowl. I made one of these in the one week sewing camp my Mother signed me up for when I was 17. That was 16 years before the crafting bug bit me, so you can imagine I wasn't very impressed with the class. The shorts and shirt I sewed that week are long, long gone, but beside my bed is the coil bowl I made that week. And ever since I've had this machine, I've been wanting to make more coil bowls.

This one is by no means perfect. In fact, I feel a bit like a kindergartner with a craft project that only a mother would love. But I'm pleased that I finally faced up to the intimidation and didn't let myself back down until I accomplished what I intended to accomplish. More bowls to come. And maybe I'll find a way to fix the wonky height variations!