Building a Quilt

 I think we all want the finished product.  That quilt that knocked our socks off and made us buy the pattern or take the class is what we want and we really don't think a whole lot initially about the steps it will take to wrap the finished product around us and give us warmth.

For me it is like reading a well written and engaging book.  Do you roll your eyes at those readers who read the last chapter first and know that's not how you read a book.  Roll your eyes at me then because I can be one of those-here's why.  Sometimes, I engage in a book and the characters are being developed along with the plot and I don't get them and so an inkling of frustration sets in and to alleviate that I read the last chapter and I get it.  Now I can go back and delve into the characters and understand what is happening as a result of their personality, circumstance, etc. and the book is now more enjoyable for me because I can get lost in the characters and plot without being frustrated.  When the ending comes sometimes I am still surprised by how it all wrapped up.  

A beautiful quilt can do that for me too.  Sometimes I jump right in before I have a good handle on the steps involved in creating the masterpiece.  The seam ripper gets used, blocks end up in the trash and thread and scraps are all over the floor. Authors have an ending in mind or where they want the book to go and they create the scenarios and emotions to get you there.  They have to pay attention to all the nuts and bolts of being a good writer, like grammar and sentence structure and so on.  We as quilters need to do the same thing.  We need to know about how to get an accurate 1/4" seam, pressing, cutting, etc. but the creation and the end result is all you.  It's yours and yours alone.

Read your pattern all the way through.  Every last word and picture.

Ask yourself how you can make it your own.

Do I have techniques I'd rather use than how they did it.

Gather your equipment in one place

Create your masterpiece

Steep the tea, wrap yourself in your masterpiece and read a good book.  No judgement if you read the ending first.😀

What has always been is not necessarily always best.

Blessings,

Dee

Working Hard or Delighting in our Work?

 It has been a long time since I have added anything to this blog.  I have allowed many things to get in the way with one of them being myself.  It became just another thing on my "to do" list and I kept pushing it to the bottom because I thought other items were more important.  Have you ever done that?

With Covid and a new way of teaching to learn and getting up to date with technology I have felt tired and overwhelmed and not finding much joy in the day to day accomplishments.  I have been diligent with the "have to's" working hard to get it all done, checking off items on my list.

And then I read a devotion on Diligence and my thinking has taken a shift.  The word diligent comes from the latin word diligere, which means "to value highly, take delight in".  In the English definition it means "careful and serious in your work, or done in a careful and determined way".  I have been asking myself what if I really starting caring about my work and finding delight in it?  Would that change how I got things done?  Could I find the joy again?  After pondering on those questions for a few days I felt like I needed to put my heart back in my work and really begin intentionally caring for and loving the people I was doing the work for.  I'm feeling a change happening.  I hope you experience it from me.

Find joy in all things, big and small!

Dee