It's A Potholder, Not A Prom Dress

Ok, so I was totally on the fence with this whole Blog thing. I bought a book and  I thought about it and thought about it, but still wasn't really sure it was something I should do.  I'm an avid blog reader, but certainly I'm not in league with those fabulous and famous crafters whose words I can't get enough of.  My doubts were making themselves heard loud & clear.  I'm a scrapbooker, not a writer! I make quilts! I don't write books.  Who will read it?  Am I going to just sit here in cyberspace talking to myself?  

But this week something happened to push me off the fence.  One of my quilting students spent the better part of a class struggling.  Her machine wouldn't cooperate.  Her needles kept breaking.  Her binding slid out of alignment.  But despite her struggles, she remained cheerful and chatty.  After all, I reminded her, the class project was a potholder not a prom dress.  Quilting isn't something to stress over.  We should just relax and enjoy the process.

During the course of our conversation, she suggested I start a blog.  She had no idea that this was something I had already been thinking.  Not wanted to reveal my insecurities, I didn't mention any of my reasons not to go ahead with it.  After all, in a classroom, I'm on firm ground.  I know my stuff.  And certainly, my students want to see casual confidence, not neurotic self-doubt.  So I skimmed over that comment and turned the conversation back to quilting. 

But the seed was planted.  And I couldn't get her words out of my head, so now here I am, about to publish my very first post.  Yea me!  I look forward to having this new venue to share my knowledge and ideas with people that might not ever make it to a seat in my classroom.  I'm also excited at being able to share my creations and hear your opinions. And sometimes, I'll probably just ramble about what's going on and how much I hate the smiling guy that tortures me via his workout DVDs (and I really do hate that guy).

So I dedicate this first post to Jean and thank her for reminding me that even in the blog-world we're still just making potholders.