Trust

The prevailing lesson for me these days is about trust. Not trust of others so much as trust in myself and for myself. Usually we say that trust has to be earned. I have never been the kind of person to just blindly go down a path someone else walks. I am pretty much a skeptic.

Yet, trusting in myself is something in me still evolving. 

Quilting is like building trust. Again, trust in myself. Its a real challenge to select a pattern, the fabrics and go for it.

The cat paper piecing quilt blocks are joined in rows. There are three blocks that need to have a seam redone & I've pinned a white piece of paper on them so I can work on them next. For whatever reason, those particular seams do not lay flat, and this is the time to correct it. I enhanced this pic to get a sharper look at the colors, so in fact, colors are deeper than they show here. I need to purchase fabric for borders to finish the top and then can baste it. I am leaning toward getting it quilted on a long arm.

So many times, when a project gets to an approaching finish, I find myself going back over seams, examining colors and wondering if I made the right choice for it. The whole look of it will change once the borders go on, but they have to be the right choices of coordinating fabrics to make it work inside with the cats popping out as focus. I do not want to lose the cats after all the work. The borders will need to complement and not compete. This is the stage where I feel the most pressure. 

It is also the stage that is hardest for me to trust my own judgement. 

Its taken me a long time to get to this point with the top. Part of the struggle has been doing the paper piecing. Part of it is how much repetition there was in doing two blocks over and over. I admit to thinking a couple of steps ahead of myself, and yet, when I looked back to check my work, those three blocks called for my attention. Its probably easy to find errors. It certainly is easy to break trust in myself; to criticize.

Of the five PIFs (Pay It Forward) I am doing this year, there are two left to finish. I discovered that I do RAK (Random Acts of Kindness) after all. I am always impressed with how people among my quilting friends make comfort quilts.

In about an hour or so, I made a couple of 10" square pillows for an Infant Center in town. Most Teachers have to provide their curriculum and supplies & they really are underpaid for all they do; I will often make up small fabric items so I can practice stitches or use up fabric, and then donate to the lead Infant Teacher. I was given 5 of these small panels, and used two fish and two butterflies to make them reversible, practiced some machine stitches for appliquéing them onto the fabric, stuffed them with poly fill, and away they go. They can be washed after a day of being carried around by slobbering babies, and when they fall apart, go into the trash. Kids that age (0-18 Months) need soft things to play with that fit into the monthly curriculum. 

And yes, at this age, they are being taught colors, numbers, behavior, as well as science, music, dance and table manners. I've also given this Teacher doll quilts, and plan to make up a few fabric boxes for tiny toy storage. She's also got quite a few aprons that I've made and will tell me how they save her clothing. She gives me the opportunity to do RAK as a service. And I can use fabric that has no designation. 

Sharing my resources has given me a peaceful heart.