A little floral bag

Every year when it starts getting warm, I like to get a new purse.  It seems like a silly thing, buying a new bag every summer, but it's a nice tradition.  My summer bags are light and floral, made from fabric instead of leather.  They're a little bigger, so I can put extra summertime books in them.  But there's one problem: they only last one season.  The fabric is thin, so by September or October, little holes and tears start showing up in the pockets.  The strap comes loose, or a buckle breaks.  It happens year after year: those cute, floral summer bags at Target and Walmart are just too cheaply made to last past fall.  It's a sad fact, but one I've come to accept.

Today, my husband and I were at Target and I passed by the purse section, hoping to sneak a peak at my summer bag options.  But even though the swimsuits and tank tops have been out since March, the purse section hasn't arrived at summer yet.  Disappointed, I told my husband about my summer purse problem.  He seemed to think it was silly that I bought a new purse every summer.  Where was the one I bought last summer?  Why did I buy a new one every year?  Why didn't I just make one?

I scoffed at the suggestion at first.  Make one?  Usually making something meant that I had to buy fabric, and fabric was expensive.  Making a purse would cost more than buying one, and it wouldn't last any longer.  What purses I had made were short-lived.  Besides, I hadn't pulled out my sewing machine since December.  I didn't want to sew now.

But as we got closer to home, I started thinking about that purse I would make.  How many pockets it would have, what color fabric I could use from my stash.  And suddenly, I knew I'd rather make this year's summer purse than buy it.

The tan is a linen that I originally bought to make bread sacks.  It's been in my stash since January, completely forgotten.  The black and white floral is from a friend's dress that I'm making (and need to finish). All in all, it was a cheap little bag, much cheaper than the purses at Target would have been.  

I forgot how much I love sewing purses.  I made a few in college, but none in the past few years.  Purses are easier than dresses and skirts, and much faster.  I can draw what I want my purse to look like, and in a few hours it sits before me, complete and pretty close to what I'd dreamed.  There is something wonderful about imagining, designing, creating, and finishing a project in one sitting.  It makes me feel accomplished, without having to be patient.  

Sometimes it's nice not having to be patient.  :)

To Create

The act of creation is an important piece of the human existence. As humans, we were created by God.  Not only that, but we were created by a God who is a Creator.  The very first thing God does in the Bible is to create the world, and all the things on the world - night and day, earth and water, plants and animals and humans. Creation is an intragral part of God's very being.

If we as humans were made in God's image, then we are made to create.  We were made to create with our hands, and to step back and see that our work is good.  The world around us shows that we have created since our own creation. We cannot stop creating.

Creation has become such an integral aspect of our existence that we no longer think about it.  We teach children how to fold paper into cranes, but do not teach them how this creating is mimicking the creating of God. We watch TV shows about cooking and sewing and even about "How It's Made" but we do not make the connection between our love of creating and God's.

I describe myself as a writer, a knitter, a seamstress.  But each of these things fit into one category: creator. I am starting this blog out of a desire to not only create and show my creations, but also to discuss these creations and their connection to God and spirituality.  I hope you will join me in this exploration.