Wednesday, April 25, 2012
beginnings
Do you remember learning to print?
Gripping the pencil and willing it to follow the dotted outline of some alphabet letter, some impossibly round letter?
I have done creative things with my hands all of my life.
It has stood me in good stead many a time, but there is no getting around a learning curve.
The curve I am navigating is Free Motion Quilting. and is like moving paper under a stationary pencil.
It takes time for the path from the hand to the brain to become second nature.
I've heard that a persons style of Free Motion Quilting is as distinct as handwriting.
If that is true, I am still in the printing stage with lovely slanted script a distant dream.
Learning is so exhilarating though isn't it.
The terror, the thrill, the sweat and the sense of accomplishment.
Like a child gripping a wrinkled page of wobbly abc's, I proudly hold out my tentative beginnings.
Gripping the pencil and willing it to follow the dotted outline of some alphabet letter, some impossibly round letter?
I have done creative things with my hands all of my life.
It has stood me in good stead many a time, but there is no getting around a learning curve.
The curve I am navigating is Free Motion Quilting. and is like moving paper under a stationary pencil.
It takes time for the path from the hand to the brain to become second nature.
I've heard that a persons style of Free Motion Quilting is as distinct as handwriting.
If that is true, I am still in the printing stage with lovely slanted script a distant dream.
Learning is so exhilarating though isn't it.
The terror, the thrill, the sweat and the sense of accomplishment.
Like a child gripping a wrinkled page of wobbly abc's, I proudly hold out my tentative beginnings.
Monday, April 16, 2012
worth the wait
What is your philosophy when it comes to projects on the go; irons in the fire.
My very wise sister, a fellow quilter, takes up her rotary cutter and produces one quilt at a time. She fears that a project left unfinished for a time may remain thus forever.
That future generations will haul boxes of her incomplete quilts off to the Good Will if she is not single minded in her focus.
Her reward for perseverance is getting to start all over; Sort of like planting a garden with one favourite crop.
I found myself admitting to her that I had at least a dozen unfinished projects in various states of completion; Some very green, barely sprouted ones, and some almost ripe and ready.
Since that conversation, I have leaned on my rake and admired a harvest of five. I have also added three more into the row and am shaking the envelope of seeds so to speak.
Creating always yields a harvest and its always worth the wait.
My very wise sister, a fellow quilter, takes up her rotary cutter and produces one quilt at a time. She fears that a project left unfinished for a time may remain thus forever.
That future generations will haul boxes of her incomplete quilts off to the Good Will if she is not single minded in her focus.
Her reward for perseverance is getting to start all over; Sort of like planting a garden with one favourite crop.
I found myself admitting to her that I had at least a dozen unfinished projects in various states of completion; Some very green, barely sprouted ones, and some almost ripe and ready.
Since that conversation, I have leaned on my rake and admired a harvest of five. I have also added three more into the row and am shaking the envelope of seeds so to speak.
Creating always yields a harvest and its always worth the wait.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
the view
Quilting is definitely the indoor equivalent to hiking.
Like spreading out a map and plotting a course, even so we quilters orient our inner compass and draft a plan.
We gather equipment and set off with a spring in our step.
This is almost always short lived and followed by hours of tough slogging.
The trail grows dim and difficult to follow.
There are switchbacks and windfalls.
It can seem like we have passed the same spot before and indeed we have.
I have picked out and resewn the same spot with the bewildered angst of a disoriented daytripper.
Ahhh, but the view.
It's worth the blisters and the sweat.
Like spreading out a map and plotting a course, even so we quilters orient our inner compass and draft a plan.
We gather equipment and set off with a spring in our step.
This is almost always short lived and followed by hours of tough slogging.
The trail grows dim and difficult to follow.
There are switchbacks and windfalls.
It can seem like we have passed the same spot before and indeed we have.
I have picked out and resewn the same spot with the bewildered angst of a disoriented daytripper.
Ahhh, but the view.
It's worth the blisters and the sweat.
ominous
Isn't the english language ambiguous?
Delightfully ambiguous.
My quilt guild has a Hanging Committee.
Doesn't that sound ominous?
Delightfully ambiguous.
My quilt guild has a Hanging Committee.
Doesn't that sound ominous?
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
listen
The silence of the Lord is good for us.
It teaches us to hunker down and listen.
To learn to recognize His voice.
To distinguish it from our own inner voice,
from the voice of the world around us.
To hear the still, small Voice.
The silence teaches us to listen.
It teaches us to hunker down and listen.
To learn to recognize His voice.
To distinguish it from our own inner voice,
from the voice of the world around us.
To hear the still, small Voice.
The silence teaches us to listen.
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