A Slow & Steady Strategy

For most of my life I resisted moving through life at a slow and steady pace. I participated in a number of extreme sports that required hitting balls, moving fast, running sled dogs, jumping out of planes, and skiing in water and on snow. Slow, in my opinion back then, was for slackers. I was not into taking small steps. Everything was leaps forward into the dark caves, or through the woods without fear. Good ol' days for sure.

Quilting is not like that. Quilting is about having a strategy that takes time and places value on thinking before cutting, measuring, planning and then piecing. Slowly. Steadily. 

I had a number of those 6.5" Halloween print squares from last year's swap. I figured that I could cut them in half, and then cut one of the halves in half again. I trimmed them down to a 5.5" square and joined five of them in five rows. They end up being a 24" square table topper. The back side is flipped over to show a more moderate expression in case the recipient thinks the top is too busy. It is quilted and the binding waits to be hand sewn for the finish.

There were two blocks leftover that will go into the mug rug next. I'll buy one of those glass jarred candles to go with the table topper and a mug to go with the mug rug, which needs to be made next.

I try to slow down. Honestly. And then some voice deep inside my head tells me to get up and DO something. I think that I have invited a lot of voices to join the chorus in my head since starting this fabric art. 

I've had to sort through them and make my own choices to do my own work. When I think about freedom and choice, I know that people stormed the Capital at various times to get personal freedom, and while I might have it on most of those political and religious levels, I still fight a battle inside that wants to give me permission to take a nap rather than to work myself into exhaustion. The other voice of that issue tells me that there is enough time to rest when I am dead. Jeeze. Seriously. And I have said it often. I am a person who resists a rest.

I felt so driven to make quilts for all my family members. I pushed myself to do them. And now that I am almost finished with 'the great plan', I can slow down and work at a more civilized pace. I think. Oh sure, that's what gets me in trouble. Thinking.