Uncle Bobby

Carolyn at diaryofasewingfanatic posted an entry yesterday that contained this challenge:

However, this week I want to turn the tables. If you read my blog, I would like you to shout-out and tell me where you are located AND name one person who is inspirational to you, sewing-wise. It doesn't have to be someone famous or well-known, it can just be someone who inspires you to continue to sew or who taught you to sew or whom you would like your sewing to emulate.

I swear, Carolyn, I posted a reply to you. But for some reason, it disappeared into cyber-space. Good thing I saved the response because I can still share it with my blog friends.

I have a lot of inspiration sources for my sewing, but one who came to mind as I read the post was my late Uncle Bobby, who was my mom's younger brother. Uncle Bobby worked for Stewart's, THE department store in Louisville back in the day, in their interior design department. He installed window treatments in high-end homes in Louisville and Lexington KY. He used to always share stories of the fancy Victorian town homes and horse estates he had visited, and how they were decorated--the color choices, the furnishings, etc.

Stewart's used to sell the (large) remnants at employee sales for next to nothing, and he'd always pick up a few choice pieces and tell me to make something from them. Even after Stewart's closed and he went to work for other workrooms in the area, he always did that.

Even though he's been gone a while now, I still have several pieces of his fabrics in my collection. He inspired my love of textiles and opened my eyes to fabrics beyond those available to a middle-class suburban teenager.

I don't really even sew home dec, but Uncle Bobby's encouragement of my sewing has inspired me to this day.