I absolutely love using my sewing machine. I have never been one to cut out patterns, pin them to fabric, and join them at perfect corners. I do enjoy quilting but take a more artful approach, with a lot of creative liberty. I tried sewing on paper a few times with poor results. After recently watching some Roben-Marie Smith tutorials, I gave it another try and was successful, much to my great delight. With my sewing machine, using layers is definitely helpful in not having the machine punch holes throughout the paper to the point where it can’t hold the thread. I have always loved beautifully patterned fabrics, and being able to combine paper and fabric in this way has been a bit revolutionary for me. And I absolutely love having the thread tails hanging off all over, it gives the work that extra something. Using so many different types of layers and materials and sewing them all together gives the art so much texture and interest, and there are so many rabbit trails to follow. I had never intended for these mini sewn art journals to become the bread and butter of my practice, but for now, they have. My whole desk area is covered in stacks of painted papers, bits of fabric, watercolor cut outs, and ephemera. It’s a happy mess.

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