Growing up I spent a lot of time at Westwood Cottage, and I almost never went home without having done something interesting and creative; making crafts, baking cookies, picking wild flowers and arranging them for my teacher. I can’t remember a time when I did not have a creative project that I was working on, or two or three for that matter. I come from a long line of Makers and it is a big part of who I am.

My first sewing machine! My mother bought me a length of blue gingham and I just created. So much fun!

So, you can imagine the joy I have felt recently setting up and organizing my new Sewing Studio. My old space was in the front porch of our home. Great for three months of the year. But in the winter, there is no heat and on a day like today with -50 C wind chill using the space is impossible . Bits and pieces of my projects end up everywhere!

Becoming an empty nester has given me a new option. My son’s bedroom has now become my studio. It has been a work in progress for some time. Over the past 10 years I have received the sewing supplies from three other Makers. Now, finally, things are organized and all in one place. I have also discovered I have enough hand needles, pins, heavy black handled pinking shears, and buttons to last several lifetimes!

It is a mixture of the old and new including my childhood desk and miscellaneous pieces of painted furniture. Old and new sewing machines, my grandmothers sewing basket, new and vintage fabrics all combined to create a space where anything is possible. Kind of like me in a way. The new me constantly reinventing the old me. – keeping the best of the past and adding the future. I’m looking forward to getting to work!