My name is Amy McGann and I currently live right outside of Waco, Texas. We moved here two years ago for my husbands job from Middleton, Idaho right outside of Boise were I grew up and have spent most of my life. We have three wonderful children, one dog and one cat. They certainly keep me busy.
I love to read. I would spend hours during summer break and after school in my bedroom reading, I really enjoying Sweet Valley High series and Stephen King. Not a likely combination, some would say a bit odd, and well, I suppose I am. When it comes to movies I prefer Horror. I don’t like gross horror, but horror with a great story line. My favorite tv shows are The Big Bank Theory and The Walking Dead. I am counting down the days until Season 4 starts!
My love of sewing began about 3 years ago, a little late in life compared to most. You see, my mother was a quilter. When I was small, she made all of my Barbie doll clothes and when the big Cabbage Patch faze came, we couldn’t afford them so my mother made me one. She did an excellent job and eventually I did get a Cabbage Patch Doll, and the one my mother made, well, I don’t know what happened to it. Actually, I forgot all about it until, 4 years ago when she suddenly passed away. It was a shock and it devastated me. While cleaning out her house, which was both heart breaking and revealing, I found the pattern book she used to make me that doll. I kept a few knick knacks of her’s, ones that made me feel close and brought back memories and I also inherited her fabric collection. I didn’t know what I was going to do with it since I did not know how to sew, but something about the way the fabric smelled and felt, knowing that she hand picked each and every one, well I felt comforted by it. My favorite thing I kept was a rag quilt. I would often cover up with it when I would watch tv with her at her house and after she died, when ever I touch it, I feel a energy, something that makes me feel warm and loved and it’s hard to explain, but I get kind of a tingly feeling when ever touch it. Now, I keep it hung up on a shelf for all who enter can see it and when ever I miss her, I touch it or cover up with it and I feel loved. That is when I realized how special things made with love, not bought from a store, but hand made with energy and time, patience and even a few flaws are so much better than anything I could every buy in a store.
With the help of my Aunt Sherri, my mother’s sister, she taught me how to make a rag quilt and I love them! I keep meaning to make more of them, but it took me a while to start sewing. At first I felt tremendous guilt for cutting up my mothers fabrics and I feel ill when I did cut into them. I didn’t really start sewing for almost a year after her passing. I kept the fabric neatly organized and stored in my craft room on shelves.
This blanket means so much to me.
Finally, after all of the hard things were done and a little time passed, I knew my mother would want me to use her stash and not just let it sit there. SO, I began sewing, and was I terrible at it! I had three kids and no time to take classes. I read all of the sewing books I kept from my mother’s house and tried over and over again and just was not good at it, so I stopped.
A few months later I was browsing my favorite store ( Barnes and Noble) I came across a magazine that changed my ideas of perfection and sewing forever. The name of that magazine was ” STUFFED”. I flipped through it and was amazed by the strange and odd creations within it’s pages. Despite the hefty price ($14.99) I decided to buy it. I took it home and read each and every page, then I read it again. Their were so many different kinds of stuffed creations, from perfect store quality animals to weird, odd and even scary monsters. I was hooked! I have since bought every issue!
The name of my ETSY shop is called Badstitches, because it was not the perfect animals that inspired me, but it was the creations that had strange and odd stitching, weird stories and just plain strange creatures. I learned that you do not have to be perfect to make wonderful things, as it’s the flaws and unique stitching that gives a creature a life of it’s own, well in my opinion anyway. Learning how to sew brought me closer to my mother I believe, even though she was gone, she is always with me when I pull out a piece of fabric from her stash and begin to create something unique.
Please visit my ETSY shop at https://www.etsy.com/shop/BadStitches to see what I have been creating.
badstitchesblog 