Glad for doing extra!

This has been one of those weeks where I swear my pea brain works at a higher level than my consciousness.  When I started back to quilting I started working with kits that had been given to me after my mom passed.  I also have a niece who just gave birth to a baby girl and needed a baby quilt for her.  While I was shopping for that I found a simple pattern and fabrics for 2 other baby quilts.  I was informed later this week we have another friend expecting (anyday now apparently) and I just so happen to have 2 baby quilt tops ready to finish and I can gift one to this child as well.  Such foresight on my brains part its lovely.

I never did get to work on the wedding quilt or hand quilting this week after the earlier finishes.  Life has this way of interfering in the best laid plans.  But I will get something done this weekend.  I'm determined even if it is to just work on this baby quilt that I need to get done this week.

Weather is warming up, snow is melting, I haven't checked to see if the crocus have popped their heads through.  In a few more weeks windows will start being opened, I'll be complaining about weeds in the garden and needing to mow the grass.  Spring has definitely sprung. especially in my head! I need to start walking again everyday and other health related types of stuff which is a far cry from qilting but being in good shape lets me stay in the sewing room longer so important stuff.

Just a quiet kind of start to the weekend so I'm going to sit back with my cuppa and contemplate what happens next.

Goals and creativity

Well its Tuesday and as I started blogging again yesterday so much to catch up on.  Messed around a bit with the blog template more messing coming.  Want to customize it further and change a few things but this is requiring my idling brain to think techy again.  It's fun to reawaken things and get it going.  A shout out to my buddy Amy for reminding me where to create the signature that is now on all my posts.  I'm sure I would have remembered it eventually and found a much more difficult route to take.

As the title of todays post reads I find myself thinking about goals and the impact on creativity.  Some days the to-do lists are so large and the goals too high that it makes craft or even something so simple as cooking for your family not feel like a creative endeavor.  I love life.  I have always striven to make almost everything I do fun or at least tolerably pleasant (cleaning a litter box is just not fun no matter how hard I've tried) and that usually requires me to exercise my creative brain. Being human there is sooo much I'm just plain not good at so I might as well make it fun, right?

I find myself thinking about goals for my quilting again.  What is it I want to accomplish? Then I see stash busting goals and completion goals and alll kinds of other goals that hyper focus a person on an aspect of craft.  Does this hurt creativity?   Maybe this is something you just aren't good at or you feel guilty for the stash.  I know for me right now when I think of goals I think of closure.  I've had so many dramatic changes in the past few years and the effect it has had on me especially in the past 1-2 years. Then I look at my project list and the projects that were started or are wrapped up in some of the pain from this period of change.  I want to finish and put closure on it all.  Like tying up loose ends.  But I don't associate every project with this only certain ones. Do you do that?  Do you tie your emotions into certain projects and then the goal becomes either finishing for joy or finishing to bury pain?  Interesting reflection for me this morning. Curious as to how others think about goals and creativity and whether they are interconnected or run in conflict with each other.  Some think creativity just has to flow but can it have a goal? or can it be goal defined, time limited etc., etc.  Something to ponder anyways.

So goals.  Today my goal is to hand quilt a couple of squares on the wedding quilt and get Chuck's blue out and look at it again and start mapping or remapping the quilting I want to do.  I had a hard drive crash that had a lot of my quilting plans on it so things are having to be redone and reworked and replanned.  Some things I had back ups on but not everything and since those projects started I've changed and my vision for things has changed so the original thoughts no longer seem appropriate. So I'm going to look at it again and decide what I want to do and get it done. (She says with determination and a lot of doubt)

I can't forget the domestic goddess part of my day.  Mt. Washmore is calling too much piled up and an avalanche is threatening.  Then that goal of  "What to make for dinner".  Considering its after lunch and I haven't really started any of this my goals had better not get tooo lofty or I'm setting myself up for failure.  So now the goal is to end this post and get off my duff and get a move on.  As the needle turns .......

Good Day another Finish

It's been a good day!.  Just Finished Snow on my Fence, the boys are thrilled one more quilt to fight over!

Now that the quick finish fix is out of the way time to get back to LONG AGO AND FAR AWAY quilts that really really need to be finished.  My wedding guest book quilt is 12 years old and it still needs a small amount of hand quilting in the main quilt and the borders done.  This is all hand work and what is left to be done is complex quilting designs that I have struggled to find a way to transfer to the fabric.  God bless quilt pounce and needle punched print outs from the computer!  This is a very slick way to create quilting templates and I use card stock weight paper and it works like a dream.  As with anything new it takes a bit to perfect the technique but it isn't new nor is it something I dreamed up but as with most of what I use and do has been knowledged transferred to me from others.  This is a shot of the quilt I'm working on please note most of this is quilted except some small squares, setting tris and the border

So that is my focus for now other than to mail off the baby bargello quilt.  I'm working on a slide show for the blog but I don't want it to dominate the pages like the one I had earlier.  For the moment I'm going to try and embed a picture of the baby bargello with the tote bag.  This was a kit from Our Gathering Place  and she still has some if you are interested in it.

So after the wedding quilt is done what is next you say?  Well let me show you the next big job that has to get finished.  This is a quilt for my brother I joke it is from his blue period.

I think that is enough out of me for now.  Need my blog buddies to remind me how to do a signature for my posts and I need to get cracking on that slide show.  More out of me later.

I'm back

Hello all. Long time away from quilting and long time away from blogging, but I'm back.

I used to post and blog under another name but my mother passed away and life got terribly difficult for me for about the past year and half. I closed the door on my studio and left things pretty much untouched for about a year and half and deleted the blog. During that time I lost my creative spark. It was damped to a low ember tucked away somewhere safe.

My quilting is so tied to my heritage and I was overwhelmed with the loss and the changes that brought for me. I was very very close to my mother and I still miss her dearly but, I've come to realize that remaining expressionless and voiceless and locking my creativity up was more of a disservice to her and my mamaw and all they represent for me then creating and caring and taking all they gave me and paying it forward. So I'm back.

Okay so now what? Well..... she says as the rabid quilting dazed look appears in her eyes. I needed restarter projects and I've done some. I've made some baby quilts and assembled some kits that were gifted to me shortly after my mom passed and even as I'm typing this opening post I have the quilt I was working on when she died on my lap finishing the binding. This has all happened in the past month. So to say I'm back in action is probably a safe assumption.

It will take me a few days/weeks/months to build things up but I'm going to and get busy posting and motivating myself and my buddies again. My ramblings my take me to a few different areas other than quilting. During my hiatus I discovered online games MMO's to be specific and have become a facebook junkie and discovering that I actually do care about politics (perish the thought) so there may be some off the wall comments in those directions from time to time but I will endeavor to keep things mainly about craft no guarantees though.

Okay so other than the 28 project list that has to be posted what else is going on. Well I'm the mom of 2 boys and they are 10 and 8 (soon to be 9) and in 5th and 3rd grade. Still the best blessing in my life and I wouldn't trade them for anything. They both want to learn to sew so I am going to be working with them and my old machines and giving them lessons. Need to carve out some time and projects for them to work on. It will be a good use for scraps.

Yeah you read the project list right there are 28 on the list (soon to be 27) and 13 of those things are actually things that can be quilted and finished. I believe Infinity quilter calls them flimsies. There are 7 projects with applique and they are in various stages of near flimsie or what shall we call them sheerlings? WIP is traditional and for the moment we'll leave it at that. I may refer to them as the !)((@&$%^ projects at some point. But for now I'm in a good mood so we'll leave the cursing alone.

I'm looking to go back to work soon and make other changes. I'll be hitting 48 later this week and part of this year or reemergence I've been seeing a therapist to help me reorganize the clutter in my head and the long held misconceptions I've had about things. It is helping and I am developing that adoration for my therapist many do. It has been an extremely good thing for me and I highly recommend it if you are feeling really really lost with life and can't seem to get focused again. I made a statement back in the fall and it bears repeating. I'm not dead yet. Others have died but my time is still in the here and now and I have a lot of living (and quilting)left to do.

I'll work on getting more content links and other info up for you. It all takes time but as I said I'm back. More as the needle turns later.