Words on Walls

With my birthday coming up soon, I know my kids and husband will be asking me what I would like as a present/presents. I like being surprised, but since the older two are on a limited budget, I always try to think of things that won't cost them much money.

Keeping that in mind, my oldest daughter, Laura, has a vinyl machine business. Although she started out lettering cars, business signs, and banners, she has started giving vinyl words as baby gifts, birthday gifts, etc.

I think it would be fun to have words on my walls in my sewing room. I can think of a few, such as "sew", "create", "imagine", "play", and "Sewing is my passion". Those words make me feel good inside. I love the word "passion". I think we can all relate since we are passionate about quilting!

I love this quote from a lady on Simply Quilts one day: "Quilting is like writing poetry. It's not because you want to; it's because you have to." I understand that, as I'm sure most of you do, too. I think that would be too many words, but I still like it.

I think that as women we are so busy taking care of everyone, working, keeping our homes clean, paying bills, running kids around every where. being active in our quilt guilds or other organizations. We could also be taking care of our grand kids full time,our parents, or in my friend, Terry's, situation: her 88 year old grandmother, her child with cystic fibrosis, her other grown children, and a longarm quilting business.

Life can get so overwhelming! I've been feeling that way here lately. I need "balance". I love that word, too. Panera Bread has a coffee blend named "Bright and Balanced". I'm bright, but balanced? Not so much.

I remember when I was 12 years old; all I did was play with my friends, listen to music, ride my bike, play with my dog, spend time with my family, and I learned to sew. I even made my own clothes. Life was great, simple, non-chaotic, and no one depended on me, except for me to keep my room clean, do well in school, and be respectful.

I also spent a lot of time alone. My parents both had their own businesses, and at 12years old I could stay home by myself and be fine. In that time alone, I didn't spend it watching TV, playing video games, being on the computer, texting my friends, or talking on the phone or cell phone, like some kids do today. Instead, I spent a lot of time creating stuff or playing my piano and singing really loud. When I got tired of doing all of that, I would ride my bike, jump rope, or hula hoop. I was never bored. I always had something to keep my hands and mind busy.

I keep a picture of myself in my sewing room of me when I was 12.

I look at it every once in a while and try to remember what it was like then. I think it's so important for us to keep in touch with that little girl that is inside of us who loves to play, create, and imagine.

I don't know about you, but I'm still that little girl; I just have more responsibilities. I need some time to play, create, and imagine. I need some time alone without having to go anywhere or have anything to do but play in my sewing room.

Another word I love is "content". I remember when I moved to South Carolina to a little paper mill town 18 hours away from my family that lived in a huge city. I was 25, and married. Laura was 3 and Wade was 18 months. I was excited at first because of the new adventure. Then after a few weeks the excitement left. The little town was 50 years behind the times. The banks closed on Wednesday afternoon, and the news paper was published only on Thursdays. There wasn't much going on in that little town, so I thought.

I found a scripture one day as I was looking through my Bible. I think it is in Philippians. It went something like this:"For I have learned in whatever state I am in to be content". I took that literally. I could be happy in SC in my little paper mill town as much as I could be happy in the big city of Shreveport, LA. So every day I found something happy about that little town, and fell in love with it. I became involved in the community. I taught women how to make hair bows for their little girls. I painted sets for the local theatre. I taught women how to sew or to do crafts. I didn't know how to quilt then, but I would have taught them if I knew how! In every day life, though, that scripture has helped me to find happiness, to be content in whatever I am doing. I may have to look really hard, but I can usually find the "happy" some where!

Terry has nicknamed me Pollyanna. Go figure. :)

I was going to ask you what words would you suggest my daughter to make me to adhere to the walls in my sewing room. I think I have sort of answered my question, which would be "sew","create","play", "imagine", and "sewing is my passion". I guess I could also tell her to make me "happy" since I seem to find it every where I go. Terry would get a kick out of that! :)

The walls in my sewing room are yellow.

I love pink and yellow together, as you can see here in my flower bed. I love pink petunias and yellow marigolds side by side.

Terry even made me a pink and yellow quilt for my 40th birthday.

The yellow fabric is Folk Art Wedding II from Robyn Pandolf and the pinks came from her stash. The quilt has 40 shoo-fly blocks. It reminds me of pink lemonade.

My words will be pink. If I do them black my sewing room will look like a bumble bee.
I don't like brown and yellow together, even though

I love sunflowers.

I want the words to be subtle (about 5 inches tall) because my sewing room is so "busy" looking. I sort of want them not to stand out too much, if that makes sense.

I thought about "Super Quilter", "Quilt Diva", my name, "Amanda", or my blog name "Busy Little Quilter". My blog name might look great over my sewing machine area.

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think, then tell me what word or phrase would look great in your sewing room!