Me Now

People who know me as an outspoken adult might never guess I was a very shy child that never attended kindergarden. My journey hasn't been in the middle of the pack, so it's been rough at times. I am blessed with a very wonderful bunch of brothers and sisters and a few very good friends who always help me through the rough spots. I'm a lucky woman.

While other kids were learning to play nice, I was was stuck out on the farm in remote rural Kansas with a little dog named Nippy for a companion and a very moody sewing enthusiast for a mother. I swear to God, she had more faces than a mug book. The comparisons to Dorothy and the Wicked Witch doesn't end yet...A huge tornado nearly sucked me and my infant sister up....up...and away one afternoon. I'm not kidding.

Somewhere over the rainbow, I was doing English smocking and having tea parties with dolls and things rescued from the trash pile. My girlhood was ruled by my obsession with dressing my dolls and creating fashions for them by hand or on the finger eating treddle sewing machine out in the shed. My teenage years were during the hippie era of the early seventies. I wanted to be an artist and tried to learn to play the guitar. Besides my wavy hair, the thing that set me apart from the legions of girls with center-parted straight hair was my really wierd handmade clothes adorned with profuse embroidery and patches. Heard of the Mad Hatter? My moniker was the Mad Seamstress.

Most of my adult life the carpet has been full of threads, the dining room table has ALWAYS been covered with sewing and the housekeeping is waiting until tomorrow. My four daughters became my "Barbies" to dress and pamper. We might have lived like white trash but we looked CHIC! The girls looked for scissors with such frequency that one decided to hide them until I offered a reward! Many years of beautiful little girls in pretty dresses. I made clothes and quilts for everyone I love. Even my husband had handmade shirts. Really awful novelty print ones whenI didn't like him. :)

I've tried many crafts. I had quilt fever for a while. Jewelry design ruled for a couple of years and is on it's way out. Knitting is my new pastime for lazy nights in front of the tube. Some of my professional occupations besides seamstress have been wallpaper hanger, nurse, recreational therapist, craft class coordinator and custom picture framer. The pattern seems to be I take on something new and then loose interest when it is no longer a challenge.

A few years back I made the decision to quit playing around and make some money. I went to college and became a mechanical designer. Designing backhoes and other large construction equipment is very challenging but it's not my passion. I wish it was. Nothing makes me happier than to find an appreciative home for the clothing and accessories I create.