I know we are supposed to enjoy the journey, rather than hanging out for the destination, but sometimes the journey seems a little long and tedious.
I’ve been dwelling on the past week, and it seems I’ve spent much of my time doing not very exciting things. And yet, without these processes, the end results of gorgeous quilty things won’t happen.
For example, I have spent hours washing fabric, ironing it, and folding it into neat piles. Not something to write a blog post about, though leaning over a hot iron on a cold day is pleasant.
Quilting has begun to feel a bit like work. It may be because all my recent projects have been for other people, have been created under self-imposed deadlines, or have involved finishing, rather than the excitement of starting a new project.
The quilts I have been finishing also represent early experiments, which contain mistakes I wouldn’t make now. So I feel I have outgrown them, yet still have to quilt and bind them, so they aren’t wasted.
Take this Postage Stamp quilt for example. I sewed it before I had my new machine, or a quarter inch foot. I also mixed batiks, high and low quality fabrics. As a result, the squares do not line up due to inaccurate seam allowances and stretched fabric, and so I used an “organic” straight line approach when quilting. Things got pretty “organic” where squares and rows were offset the most.
It was a valuable experiment, but doesn’t represent where my quilting is now, or the direction I want to move in.
So, I have decided after finishing the current quilt for my daughter, I am heading back to creating for myself for a while. Back to piecing lots of little bias triangles, playing with colour, and just enjoying myself. I’m even thinking of designing my first quilt.
In the meantime, I intend to bind this quilt using the purple backing fabric. I know its a “thing”, I just have to google it to find a tutorial.
And then, its back to my Gypsy Wife #2, and maybe a couple of new projects.
quilts across the aisle 