Wow, indeed! This a wonderful thread!! It's fascinating to read what you all have said.

All of my life I've loved making things, including artwork.

My dad was a professional artist, illustrator and cartoonist and most of his friends were artists, too. He was the first artist to draw The Shadow comic books and he also did "Maggie and Jiggs" for the daily newspapers. He worked at home, drawing pictures everyday and I thought that was a normal way of life. I remember sitting in his studio and drawing, too, when I was a little child.

When I was a teenager I lived in Japan for 2 years and went to a Japanese art school, learning Nihonga. When I came back I went to the Art Students League, doing oil painting and drawing everyday. I used to sketch people on the NYC subways and there were so many interesting faces. Also I spent days and days in the galleries of the Metropolitan Museum of Art with oil paints, canvas and easel, copying master paintings by Vermeer, Renoir and Sir Thomas Lawrence. It was a great way to absorb and learn techniques of the artists that I admired so much.

Later I joined a painting group and we got together every week to paint and draw. We did group shows and that led to getting portrait commissions.
I love starting with a blank piece of paper or canvas and bringing it to life with a pencil or a brush and some colors
I really like doing art work, but it's almost impossible to make a steady living at it.
So, I thought I could do art part time and something more practical the other half of my time....

What to do?? I've always enjoyed sewing and related crafts, like needlepoint, embroidery, cross-stitch samplers, knitting, crochet, doll making, etc.
Actually, I enjoy making things with my hands so much, that I can hardly endure sitting still without a project to work on. To this day, I still have scary dreams about being on a long plane trip without my sewing project bag. The horror! The anxiety! The trembling, empty hands without the comfort and pleasure of my sewing things.
My name is Bonnie and I'm an addict. Ha-ha.

But now for the past six years I have the happiness and satisfaction of making kilts. Yay! And to my surprise and delight, there's never an empty work table or lack of kilts to be made or altered. And... there are things to make that are related to kilts...like flashes, or fly plaids, or vests, or rosettes, or sashes. And there are more things to learn how to make. It's a good thing.
Now, I just need to carve out some time to keep doing artwork, as well.