A Prairie Home Quilts

So, where have you been, I hear you all asking?  [Imagining to myself there’s at least one someone out there still listening after all this time… ] Welp, doing some house sitting, of course, and on a spiritual journey of sorts.  Yes, again.  Involving dragons again, too.  But, you know, I came away with a deeper understanding of the Hymn of the Soul and the meaning of the pearl.  Oh and the great Hydra was involved.  It was worth every minute of the journey.  Hehehe.  I will spare you the details of my spiritual epiphanies, though.  Really.  I’m sure you are more interested in the quilting I’ve been doing.  Wait, how could I forget?  There was a magical wedding and children visiting from far away lands happening in the middle of all this, too!

And I should probably fess up that I’ve been doing some writing also.  November is National Novel Writing Month, did you know that?  According to the Office of Light and Letters it is.  [Love their slogan:  We believe in ambitious acts of the imagination.]  The challenge is to write 50K words in 30 days.  I spent part of October preparing to write and I’ve written every day in November [obviously nothing for the blog!].  I’m at just under 39K as of this morning and hoping to hit 40K by tonight.  No one but me will ever read the thing, but it’s been another fun part of the journey to slay the great Hydra and let my imagination soar.

Okay, okay, on with the quilting…

I’ve been working on my .75″ hexagon project, Field of Flowers.  It was stalled.  I didn’t have all the flowers prepped.  I decided to go ahead and do that with Inklingo.  I can’t remember now how many flowers I needed but I printed and cut enough sets of flowers and centers to have 512 flowers when they’re all stitched. [I need 502.]  Then I went ahead and printed the corners and edges in the green fabric I’d purchased eons ago.

I started this project working from the middle out and then decided it would be so much easier to start from a corner as I was always getting the middle portion twisted around.  I have more than half the flowers done.  I feel like I’m making a huge dent in this project.

New starting point — bottom, left corner

Some finished flowers.

The box with the remaining flower sets.

And more of the wedding, just because…

Oldest daughter, Jessica with groom’s younger brother

Youngest daughter, Rachelle with groom’s older brother

Michelle and Jared McCarty

Daughters again…

Oldest son, Nathan and his lovely wife, Koren.

I’m away again without internet access but don’t worry. . .  I have this

to keep me entertained!

See this guy below?  That’s me.  A roadrunner.  Meh, maybe not.  That’s how I feel.  Like a roadrunner.

Or maybe more like a chicken with its head cut off?  I’ll spare you the photo that expresses that thought.  At least I’m not being chased.

I haven’t been home much and when I am all I want to do is veg.  I’m not home right now [house sitting] and I still just want to veg.  I should be working on my Liberated Amish quilt top or at the very least — answering emails.  Instead, I’m sitting here contemplating moving the coffee table off the area rug.  The area rug has inspired a quilt idea so I want to photograph it.  [Right, Erin.  Like you need another quilt idea?  Seriously?]  Perhaps, it’s just my body that wants to veg.  My brain does not stop.  It fills with new ideas for quilts day and night.  SOMEONE. PLEASE. STOP. MY. BRAIN. so I can veg out in peace.

• Let your mind wander and dream
• Forget the rules and follow your instinct
• Embrace life

More advice found while eating Dove Extra Dark Chocolate Promises.

Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything. Eugene Delacroix (1798 – 1863)

I found this quote on the tag of my Good Earth Sweet & Spicy tea today.  It was like a personal message just for me.  It made me smile.  On the projects I’ve been working on recently, I’ve been obsessing a bit over my mismatched seams.  I’ve been making myself a little crazy unsewing seams.  Several seams I’ve unsewn more than once.   All in pursuit of perfection.  To what end I’m wondering?

What is perfection? Isn’t it different for everybody? Can we attain it then?

Then it hit me and I had to laugh out loud. I used to have a little sticky note on my computer reminding me to accept every day as perfect just as it comes.  When I just accept everything as perfect, there is no need to seek perfection. Perfection is already there, all around me.  I accept it.  To continually seek perfection just seems to leave me more and more dissatisfied.

Perfection:  It’s all in my attitude.

Now, can I transfer this acceptance of all things as perfection just as they come to my quilt seams and blocks? I think I’m going to give it a try.  I’m sure I’ll get more quilts done.

• Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.
• Don’t be afraid to give of yourself.
• Get out there and make your dreams happen.

Advice found while eating Dove Extra Dark Chocolate Promises and working on those three [not fun, but hanging over me like little dark clouds] computer projects.

Much like Meg Ryan’s character in You’ve Got Mail, I’m not expecting  any answers–I’m just sending these comments and questions off into the cosmic void.  [I'm not even bothering to put them into coherent paragraphs...]  It’s become apparent to me that I enjoy starting new projects more than finishing old ones.   Okay, that fact has been apparent to me for a couple of decades actually…  but I do finish things. Eventually. What I should say is that this has become more of a concern during recent weeks. I have noticed lately that I further procrastinate on finishing old projects by continuing to dream up and start more and more new projects.  [Who needs patterns and magazines when your brain is overflowing with ideas??  I fell asleep the other day thinking of a pattern for a Christmas tree skirt and woke up with a pattern idea for kitchen accessories too.]  What’s even more problematic is that recently I’ve started cutting out several new projects without even beginning to sew the last projects I cut out–ones that were just started within the last few weeks.  Is it an obssession? A new disease?  Why do I enjoy dreaming up new ideas, figuring the yardage, and printing and/or cutting the fabric bits for these projects?  Why am I then letting these new projects  languish at that point??  And then starting another project??? Is there a point where your WIP and UFO list, like a fabric stash and number of question marks at the end of a sentence, becomes utterly ridiculous?   Who determines that point anyway? Or is all of this because I have these three other little non-quilting projects to do that I’m totally avoiding? Is starting more and more projects a way to feel too busy to do the non-quilting projects?  I know it’s one way to avoid doing housework. Am I afraid that once I lower the presser foot to the fabric that I won’t be able to quit until I have half a dozen projects  to the completed top stage?  [Hey, I've done my share of quilt binging.]  But then I’d really be behind on those non-quilting projects.  Which would probably cause me to want to start even more projects! That’s it!  I’m a quilt binger or a quiltaholic or something.  Hmmm.  Actually, I think I just answered my own questions… [Thank you, Cosmic Void.] Yes, I’d much rather do the fun stuff and only the fun stuff. I need to get motivated to finish up those three computer-related, non-quilting projects.  And yet I have no valid excuse for not doing them.   It’s funny to me that they are computer projects that are quilting related but not quilting projects.  And, get this…  I’ve started those three projects… just haven’t finished them. I think I need a taskmaster–someone to tell me what I should be doing when and making sure I get it done.  My mother would be a good candidate.  Nevermind.  I’d surely rebel and run for the hills screaming. Perhaps just some dark chocolate would help.