Cookie, Cookie, Cookie

One thing that happened to me when I started quilting is that my focus changed. It moved away from a lot of the concerns I had for people I love that were less healthy for me. Usually, actually, there is little we can do to guide others on their paths. My stress levels get unreasonably high when I hear that someone is in crisis, and because I am not in charge of what would happen next to them, even that drives me crazy with worry.

Quilting allowed me to tune into my own life. I began to pay attention to color, to the patterns in the fabrics, and to how everything felt. This happened with the fabrics, and also with the other aspects of my being.

Today starts my cookie baking, and cookie shipping. After wrapping and cushioning, there are usually less than a couple dozen in a box, so no one is overwhelmed by sugar & gluten.

This is a pan of what my Sons called "Bob's Bars", named for one of our friends who used to make and bring them to picnics all the time. They are a simple Special K bar.

There are six households I ship to this year. And so not everyone gets every cookie. Two of them go out this morning in the mail. And I think that will be my pattern; two households at a time for six weeks starting this one.

Yesterday, I finished most of the December calendar block for my exchange with Rexie. No pattern for this one, just some playing around. I am not sure why applique got included on it. Well, yes, I do know. I didn't know how to piece them into the block and want them to fit on it.  So its quite possible that the project will kick around here until I figure out how I am going to make it for her.

I am tuning into this work, whether my hands are on it or not. With quilting, I have learned there is something I can do to solve a problem; a quilting problem. Maybe its a metaphor for the energy I might have put into someone else's challenge. If I can make the magick work here, maybe there is a sympathetic energy out there to help someone solve their own issue.