Welcome! My name is Sarah Rave and I love to make things. I’m a self-taught quilter who loves to try her hand at various crafts and creations. I started quilting with upcycled materials from Goodwill and Value Village long before it was cool – or called upcycling for that matter. I couldn’t afford new fabric, so I spent hours deconstructing old jeans and flannels, cutting out stains and worn spots to harvest usable fabric. Thirty years later, upcycling has become fashionable, but I now purchase new, high-quality fabric for my quilting projects. My style has changed a lot over the years – I definitely prefer modern and improv quilting over the uber-traditional blocks I made out of all of those old clothes. But I still enjoy a good upcycling project; some things just don’t change. There’s a dopamine-filled rush that comes with upcycling and creatively using materials to give them a second (or third!) life.
Crafting, especially quilting, has always been a hobby of mine. I grew up with a mother (and aunts and grandmother) who were always making things. To this day, Mom can whip up a new outfit or a professionally decorated cake in an afternoon. While I lack her set of skills, I credit her with my ongoing love of being creative and making things.
There have been a lot of changes in my life recently and I’ve decided to take a huge step and try to make this beloved hobby my career. It’s scary – being self-employed doesn’t come with bennies and a steady paycheck, but I am doing my best to embrace this new, uncertain but very exciting, life perspective. I invite you to come along for this wild ride as I navigate trying to make a go of earning a living creatively. I am hoping this next chapter of my life will be filled with creative endeavors, a few amazing creations, and most assuredly, a few failures to learn from along the way. With this blog, I hope to share, collaborate, and learn with others on similar journeys. Welcome to Rave Designs!