Sit Still

I am working with a plan to sit still so my inner knee pain (MCL) subsides. It really helps to have an embroidery project at night. I finished up the hand sewing on the blue heart wallhanging for one of the FB14 projects too. 

And I joined a number of coloring page swaps on Swap-bot. It surprised me to see how many adult coloring books there are for sale. With that swap, you are to color one page, send it in a page protector and include at least one blank coloring page for your partner. I've joined four swaps, and have put together the protector and the coloring pages for each. Last night I found myself coloring a second page for swap #1 that was more a mandala, and got caught up in the pattern of it so much that it was hard to put down. It doesn't follow the theme of the swap so it is done for my pleasure only.

The lesson is the same one I think I am getting with most of the things I am quilting. The embroidery project is also destined to be part of a quilt. Doing this one all in black will make a stunning finish for it. It is almost like a 'see where this will go' attitude. 

Its all in the vision.

As young people still in school, I understand why coloring instructions have them stay in the lines, to color the sky blue, because all were lessons in learning how to find accuracy or follow directions. There was a need for conformity. However, it was so drilled into us that most of us stopped thinking for ourselves, and more over stopped appreciating those who colored outside the lines and bought a red flocked tree for the holidays.

The BOM group only made it with 12 blocks. I did 16. Most of them made a peeper border with borders on each side of it that were the same kind of fabric that read solid. I didn't do that either. So now that I have gone against the plan to do my own thing, even though the directions said I could, I am quite hesitant to show my quilt to the group even though it is stunning! 

Its like being in elementary school again and knowing if I reveal who I am, that the other students will laugh at me and the teacher will stand with hands on hips, frowning.

And so, while the MCL heals, I plan to color more pages and get lost in healing my heart. I found a number of mandala coloring pages on line. The theory about them is that they are used as a form of meditation. I like how I work with color now. I like that I can step away from the patterns to do my own thing. I like finding where the boundaries are and then deciding whether to work with them.

My embroidery project is working only with black thread. It is black work, and yet, true black work is really a counted cross stitch or counted curved stitch. Mine uses primitive stitches with black thread on white muslin. It follows a pattern I hand copy onto the fabric. And I don't know if it follows true stitches so much as what I learned as a child. I like what I make and maybe that is all that matters.