About

My blog posts focus on my sewing endeavors. I write them with the hope that readers might learn from my experiences, both good and bad. I love to sew, and I also love to travel. I write a travelogue about each vacation my partner and I take. These are documented in pages which you can find under the “Travel” tab. Under the “My Old House” tab, you can find accounts of the renovations my partner and I have undertaken on my circa 1927 home in Northeast Ohio.

Personally Speaking

I am a transplanted Southerner. I grew up in Orlando before the Mouse came to town. In those days, it was a quiet town, known for cattle ranches, orange groves, and proximity to the Atlantic Ocean. A lot has changed in that part of the world since then. I left the Orlando area at age 25, moving first to Sarasota, and later to Fort Worth, Texas; Irving, Texas; Gaithersburg, Maryland; Hillsboro, Virginia; Washington, DC; Tucson, Arizona; and—since 2008—Youngstown, Ohio. I’m the mom of two sons, and a devoted grandmother.

I began playing piano by ear in when I was 3½, and started lessons in accordion at age 5, followed by piano at age 6 and organ at age 8. I played clarinet in the school band in 4th grade, and oboe from 5th through 12th grade. I played a little guitar in college—it was the 60s, after all. And I dabbled with a banjo in college, but never mastered it. I always sang in choirs, both in school and with symphonic choruses as an adult. My favorite was Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, where I sang from 2009 to 2014. Now I work as a collaborative pianist, accompanying voice students at Dana School of Music (Youngstown State University) and for YSU Theatre Department productions, along with various community theatres in the Northeast Ohio/Northwest Pennsylvania area.

Artistically Speaking

I started sewing when my mother enrolled me in a Singer sewing class at age 13. My mother always sewed and made my graduation dress and recital dresses throughout high school and college. I have loved visiting arts & crafts fairs throughout my life. In my early 50s, I had the opportunity to take classes to learn all sorts of art forms. I’ve studied, with passion for each: sewing; quilting; fabric dyeing; glass (cold: stained glass and mosaic, warm: fusing and slumping, hot: lampwork beadmaking); pottery (hand-building and throwing, although the wheel doesn’t really like me); beading, bead crochet, and jewelry-making; knitting; and felting.

What I’m learning lately about myself is that I love learning new things, rather than perfecting any one technique. I love sewing a T-shirt from a pattern and figuring out all the ways to make the resulting garment my own. When my grandchildren were young, I loved finding projects that enabled me to teach them to sew. I am especially entranced by off-loom beadweaving (Peyote stitch, brick stitch, and so on) and silk dyeing.

My blog posts currently focus on bags, which I greatly enjoy making, whether as gifts or for myself.

Professionally Speaking

I have enjoyed a career as a writer and editor specializing in technology and legal issues. After taking a break from technology in the early 2000s, I regrouped to focus on web content for a variety of companies, including two years as web editor-in-chief for IBM storage division. I hold a B.S. in computer and information systems from University of Maryland University College, College Park, MD, and a J.D., specializing in transactional law, from Washington College of Law, American University, Washington, DC. I am the author of A Guide to the Hatch Act: Law and Procedure, published by Dewey Publications in 1993.

You can reach me at jancrews (at) gmail (dot) com.