and sew I learn

The first time I ever tried sewing without my mom there to supervise, I broke the needle on the machine.
I think I was trying to make a blanket for my barbie house. I don't know what I did wrong, but the needle snapped in half.
I felt awful, not because I was afraid of my mom being mad, but because I was worried that sewing machine needles were really expensive or something and I didn't want my mom to have to pay for that.
I wasn't always the most "normal" child in the world...

Anyway, I got my own sewing machine this summer. The first time it was used was when my mom was here and she made my beautiful curtains and couch pillows.
I decided to be adventurous and try once more to sew all on my own. It's been quite a while since my last ill-fated attempt.

My friend Allison and I went to pick out fabric to make autumn placemats. The lady at the cutting table at Hancock fabrics asked what I was making.
"Placemats."
"Oh, I love to make those. They are such a nice project--instant gratification."
"I hope so."
"Yeah," she continued, "I'm always doing so many huge projects, sometimes I make placemats just so I can finish something fast."
I smiled and didn't tell her that this was my big project.

And although it took me nearly four hours to cut them out, I'm really happy with the finished product:
I'd love to take credit for the fancy stitching, but my machine has a lot of cool stitches and I didn't have to do much more than adjust the tension to get that pretty vine border.
Kent came home from work yesterday and saw the vine stitching and he thought I had done it all by myself, by moving the material back and forth through the machine or something.
I should have just let him think that. I still have a couple more to finish sewing, but I haven't broken a needle or anything else yet!
Maybe next time I'll try something even more daring, like a pillowcase.