I am consumed with the need to finish work. I race through projects, driving until I get it finally quilted, bound, labeled and -- usually
-- out the door. Or folded and put away. But I'm increasingly not too happy with the results. I can follow many patterns. Although I don't usually. I always have to change something. Don't get me started on recipes........ I have learned to avoid the kinds of quilts that frustrate me and that I really will not spend time learning to do properly. I love the kind of quilt filled with tiny pieces of exactly the same sized and shaped fabric in varying colors that produces a breath taking geometric arrangement when it's all together. I can't do that. So I'm moving on to something else.
After a number of conversations with others, I went back to the large box of books I inherited from my friend in December. Some I had already pulled out but most were just a jumble. I found "Color and Composition" by Katie Pasquini Masopust and Brett Barker. It's an incredible book that talks about waking up your right brain. Not that my left brain is truly awake, abut that's another book.
The book is filled with exercises and it says at the outset that if you don't intend to do the exercises, just put the book down as it won't do you any good. I never do the exercises. I look at the pretty pictures. This time I'm going to do it differently. This time I'm going to put all my projects ina little box and I'm going to do nothing but the exercises in this book for a while. I want to be better. I want to be more creative. I really want to find MY way and stop copying others. And I want to be able to really make what I see in my head.
So I'm going to take some time out to learn. Maybe it won't do a darned thing to help me. But I don't think it can hurt. The tablecloth can wait. My sister's wallhanging can wait. My husband's coworker-s wife's hug quilt can wait. I'm going to just learn for a while. Should have done that at the start instead of jumping into the middle of this thing. Well.... no time like the present.
I'll show you the exercises along the way if you want, if they make sense.
Sunny