Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Creating a Vision of Your Own


When you speak English you don’t try to imitate Shakespeare, Whitman, or Wolf, right?  You have your own unique way of speaking.  You use the same words, sure.  But you have your own diction that’s just as special as you are as a person.  The same is true for your quilting skill.

As a beginning quilter, I first looked to traditional patterns.  I made log cabin blocks, snail’s trails, square in a square, hand quilted lines, machine quilted feathers, etc.  I kept trying to create these patterns to learn the basic skills needed to create art in this medium called quilting.  Do you know what I learned?

Quilting isn’t really about the replicating of a pattern.  It’s about creating a vision of your own.  But when you’re first starting out, you can’t see that, let alone DO that.  Right?


Feathers - Before
Feathers - After











It takes time to learn to quilt.  There are many, many hours of work that go into practicing to gain control to be able to take an idea from your head and execute it in stitch.  You will fail many times. That’s ok.  I still fail.  At every roadblock, return to the creators that came before us to look for inspiration and solutions.

You have to remind yourself, “I am where I am.”  Don’t compare where you are now to where someone else is or was in their skill level.  The more you practice, the more experience you gain, the stronger skill you create, and the more freedom of ideas that will begin to emerge in your quilting-not just to recreate, but create anew!

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

The Lost Art of the Personal Touch


Remember the days when the mailbox held a funny card? A thoughtful note? Or a letter catching up over the miles? Today we stay so connected electronically that there are rarely cards and notes to keep in the boxes and trunks of our lives. No mementos or keepsakes to treasure as time passes…


I recently went to the mail and retrieved an unexpected thank you card, a beautiful, tiny fan with peach blossoms on one side and a hand written note on the other. It was beautiful. It was thoughtful. The whole gesture really made me feel special and appreciated. I’d like to get back to the place where we express our appreciation to those that matter to us. It seems society has a mindset now that everything is disposable, and not worthy of value. Let’s challenge that trend.

Until next time... Get tangled!