Pieces Moving Toward Peace

Someone once told me that to think is to discover what is inside our head, and to share is to discover what is in our hearts. Most of the time, we don't know what we think or feel until we share it.

True for my quilting. True for my blogging. Even true for my teaching. One of the evals I got yesterday for the class that is just ending was a comment about how I share my personal stories and that they help open doors to how others think.

I am working on the quilt tote bag today so that I can get it done by the 15th and link up to Le Challenge.

They aren't as hard as I thought but still take time.

I was able to use batting scraps for this project and then re-ordered/re-organized my batting scrap container. I join some of the larger ones and use them in quilts as long as I know I will quilt over the joined area enough so it holds. These smaller pieces are of use too. Every so often, I will bring them to my machine and join them to make larger pieces. I tend to toss the much smaller scraps.

This morning, I plan to run some machine lines to make a grid quilted look. Again, because I am doing this bag with such a random attitude and little planning, its hard to know how it will turn out. 

Last night, I did more hand quilting, and pressed some of the seams I pieced, checked for places that got skipped. Its all these details in quilting that have to be done, and yet are so boring! 

I know that logging in these experiences is a valuable process. I used to journal a lot for many decades and filled book after book til one year, after reading them, I tossed them all in the trash bin. I got it in my head then that what I had been writing had little value.

Even with this blog, its so much text to follow, and a lot of the photos like those above are not really that much to look at. So why do it? 

Sharing or writing is some mysterious, subtle, powerful act of opening up one's soul and being courageous enough to shed fears about what I say, how to ask for what I need, and gain support for what I think or do.

Its all the pieces that seem insignificant that make up that wonderful end product.

I am not sure I have the real courage to be out in the open with my thoughts and experiences. I usually tell people that I only share what cannot bite me in the butt. And so it is for today. It is what I can do and maybe, for today, it is enough.