Origamigoldfish... my heart aches for you 😢 sometimes its hard for non-quilter family members to understand the process and how much quilting feeds our soul. We live a world where everybody could use a little “time out” now and then to center and rebalance. Your family probably doesnt realize that you need to “do your thing” just as they are allowed the time and space to unwind with their phones, tv, etc.
I know your arent complaining, but girl you need a little space and peace of your own! I know that when i started quilting in 1993 after my Beloved Dad passed away suddenly at age 63 of a massive heart attack quilting soothed my soul - even though i really had no skills to speak of then. In fact, i didnt even have a sewing machine! DH knew my sorrow and grief and surprised me with a new portable White Jeans Machine in hopes of feeding my passion and starving my sorrow. It was quite a process, but after some time and patience a quilter was born.
Ok, so we had only 2 bedrooms - one for us and one for our 2 teenaged boys... so no hopes or dreams of a sewing room. The dining room table was it for a long, long time. If i sewed i had to drag everything out and then put it away again so that we had a place for meals! I’m hearing the “oh yes i remember” from many here! And the noise of my machine... oh my goodness - the trusty White Jeans Machine was heavy and built to last inside and out! But i truly believe that it pounded fabric into submission rather than actually sewed it. Somehow we all made peace with it - my DH didnt understand it at all other than it made me happy, so it must have been ok! I still laugh when i remember him admonishing the boys at times , “dont bother your Mom right now - she’s knittin’!” LOL! 😘
A few years later we felt we had finally saved enough to build a new house - nothing big, but 3 bedrooms and a place in the country on 3 acres. We did a lot of work ourselves (we were younger then!) and somehow it all came together. The “boys” were still home - one a senior and the other a sophomore in high school. But... still no sewing room or a place of my own that i didnt have to share a couple times a day because we had to eat! We survived and eventually i got a new, quieter sewing machine that i could use at night without bringing the house down and making the dogs bark (yes, they did!). 😊 Meanwhile, my skills grew and so did all of the resulting Quilters Paraphernalia - c’mon, you all know the stuff! One of the sons left the nest in 2009 - but most of his stuff still remained for a few years - so still no sewing room. The remaining son decided that he wanted to switch rooms now that his brother did not occupy the room with 2 windows... we moved everything around but still not enough to give Mom her space.
When the last son left us with an empty nest somehow it was hard to just “take over” either of their rooms. Little by little my “knittin’ stuff” migrated to one of the rooms although i still sewed at the dining room table. Eventually, we just came to the realization that i should take the room with the 2 windows for my sewing room! It was a kinda haphazard arrangement for a few years and admittedly kinda messy and unorganized. But my dream was the “Lilac Happy Place” that i posted the photos of recently. I had a dream (even though my DH’s nightmare was the lilac walls that could be seen from the livingroom!). I am 63 now and my dream has finally come true - and God willing i will spend a good share of my retirement years in my Happy Place!
Origamigoldfish... i tell this story to encourage you. Sometimes it just takes a long time and then another long time being a work in progress, but i truly believe that anything worth having is worth the wait (sometimes just for everybody else to finally get on the same page)! You will find your way a little at a time through everybody else’s stuff and your place might just materialize in the process! Kinda like - gee, maybe we should move all of Mom’s sewing garbage into that room now... hey, girl - seize the moment if it comes - occupy first then decorate! LOL!
Sorry... seems my words always get a little too wordy!