Relapse....

I really don't recall when the addiction to fiber began.  Perhaps it was my early childhood when i was forced to craft for fun. (Actually, it was not that bad.) Whenever the weather was bad and we were stuck in the house for the weekend, we had to find ways to entertain ourselves.  There was no nintendo...I think Atari and Collecovision came out at some point.  But....we did not have those luxuries...However we did have the Encyclopedia Brittanica and the Childcraft series that came with it.

There was a volume known as "Make and Do"...so I did.  It had every type of craft that you could imagine. Everything from papermache, to popsicle stick bird houses.  Anyway, I digress....It was during my childhood that my grandmother introduced me to knitting so that was fun for a while.  Then I got the wonderful idea that I would make my clothes.  (I had a great aunt named "Aunt V" that lived in Jamaica.  We would visit some summers and she would make whatever I drew on a piece of paper...so my fashion illustration was born.)

Now back to the making clothes....I did not have a sewing machine, so my first attempt was at a pair of pants, all sewn by hand.  It was from here that the addiction began.

In recent years, since about 1997...yarn took the center stage of my craft crave.  I ended up getting real good at it...right around the beginning of the knitting/fiber arts craze in early 2000.. Started teaching it...craving it...and then I became a Yarn Snob.....

(Note:  This was not the yarn for this coat...the coat was Koigu Merino Crepe, doubled throughout and special hand dye...)

It was at that point, about 3 years ago, that I realized that I needed to make a concerted monetary shift in my addiction of choice.  I could have a skein of yarn (silk, cashmere blend..) for $30 a skein that would barely net a scarf...or oodles of fabric that could make a multitude of things.  So, I opted for fabric and slowly switched my drug of choice to the wonderful colorful world of fabric.  (Wise decision according to my pocketbook.) 

And then....I was hooked...sewing clothing, making quilts, and pillows, and art quilts.  Suddenly, I realized that I was unable to throw away the smallest piece of fabric...for fear of it being wasted.  I would carefully and pain stakingly cut out each piece to within a millimeter of its size, because afterall, I could not waste one shred of fabric. 

Then I realized, its just fabric...and you can part with the slivers and strips....but i still kept the scraps. At this point I had only gathered a cube filled with scraps.  So I was on a roll, able to part with tidbits...and was indeed guilt free....and then....I joined NYCMetroMod Quilt Guild, then Empire, and met these great people, and discovered 15 minutes of play.  And now I have relapsed into saving every single strip of material.  I thought I was cured. I finally got to a point where i got rid of pieces that were less than an inch in width and or length.  However, the challenge has begun, to get your play on...smiles.  and now i have lots of this...

That I am turning into this....

And with all that is good, I hope to turn it into something wonderful....I have Relapsed into the scrap psychosis..