I walked into a quilting fabric store some time ago with some friends and we were making small talk with the proprietors. At one point in the conversation, my friend points at me and says, "She sews everything by hand, it's so amazing!"
I wanted to duck behind the bolts of fabric and pretend that she was pointing at someone else, instead I tried to be funny and said, "I don't get along with my sewing machine; we have a hate-hate relationship."
This is a true statement, by the way. I do not get along with my sewing machine (which is, full disclosure, my daughter's sewing machine). It is fiddly to the point of frustration. I don't like the fact that bobbins are continually out of thread, or that the pedal is so sensitive that it's next to impossible to do anything slowly, or that I always feel that I need a different foot or needle, which takes forever to replace. I find that explaining this to any skilled machine sewist is impossible.
The proprietor of the quilting shop gave me that skeptical look that most people give me when I say I sew by hand, then she said, rather judgmentally, that I needed a "better sewing machine". Hmmm.
The reality is, all joking aside, that I actually like to sew by hand. Shocking, I know. It is slow, quiet, tactile, and rhythmic. The process is meditative. My hands are busy and my mind has space to wander and listen. My tools are simple: thread, needle, pins, scissors, fabric. The process provides an incredible sense of accomplishment and self-satisfaction in that I know that I made something beautiful and useful with only my hands and a few simple tools. I don't get these things from a machine.
The even greater reality is that I need to own these feelings and not try to hide them when people give me *that* look. We are so acculturated to speed and increasing productivity that we cannot believe that anyone would want to be so seemingly old-fashioned and slow on purpose.
It's time to change that perception. We need to remember is that there are many paths makers choose to walk, some are fast, some are slow, not all need machines, but all are valuable.
