Originally posted June 19, 2013.
Creating with your hands is a wonderful way to enter into the experience of the essential flow state. To be fully immersed in flow state is to be so absorbed in your task that you lose self-consciousness, your emotions are positively engaged and and you experience deep satisfaction. Developing a hobby is a good way to define a sense of self around positive experiences, outside of depression, postpartum depression and anxiety.
I enter the creative flow state when I am around fabric. I love the look and feel of fabric, all kinds of fabric…so many textures and colors! I’ve been creating with fabric since 1988, when I started making fabric bears and dolls to de-stress from my corporate job. I have so much fun researching patterns, then choosing fabrics and ribbons and decorative buttons to go with the pattern. I’ve been collecting fabric for a while! Take a peek at my fabric collection!
Creating with color and beads and lace is one of my favorite past-times. Slowing down and focusing on the creative task at hand is relaxing for me. Developing an expressive hobby helps develop different aspects or sides of the self. Mulling over color and texture releases my expressive self in a way that writing doesn’t.
I used to browse Cloth World, Rag Shop and JoAnne’s Fabrics for hours, with my son in the stroller! Too bad Cloth World & Rag Shop went out of business. When we moved, there was no JoAnne’s nearby! But I hear a JoAnne’s is opening near me in Riverdale this fall! Here’s a look inside my fabric stash!
Fabric hound heaven is Keepsake Quilting in Meredith, NH!
I mixed and matched sets of fabric and packaged them together in project packs!
I also like to mix and match and put together project packs!
This one is set up for a dog lover! A decorative wall hanging and pillow!
In the next week or so, I’ll share a wall hanging that’s in process…incorporating natural materials such as feathers, gemstones and branches.
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