The other day I hit a creative wall. What I was doing wasn't really working, I felt like I had no vision left and it was really frustrating. One of my biggest dislikes is feeling uninspired. It's so meh.
Then I taught a class at Patchfinders, making embroidered needle cases, and I enjoyed it so much. I had a lovely group and it felt nice to focus on the stitches. My demonstrative piece came home and I worked on it more, not worrying about perfection, just enjoying making a naive watermelon.
The bright pink of the Story by Carrie Bloomston print brought me cheer and made me start thinking about fabric.
So I pulled out the stash for my green tea and sweet beans quilt and picked out fabric for my remaining four larger blocks. I'm trying to include prints I really love because the end is in sight. I have other projects to do before I get time to make them all so I had to write a post-it to myself to remind me what I decided on! I do this A LOT and only once have I switched things around. It's kind of nice to follow my own instructions.
This is the current block I'm working on (hand pieced), there are three of these Double Drunkard's Path blocks in the quilt:
Of course this is all procraftination to avoid working on projects that need to get done but at least my creativity has had a boost and the slow stitches give me a breather.
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Congratulations on the day of teaching, Lucy. Sounds like it was just what the quilt doctor ordered. That bright pink puts me in mind of watermelon, too. Lovely stitching!
I recently finished reading Big Magic, a book about creativity, inspiration, and working when inspiration has fled. The author recommends continuing to work even when inspiration flees. (I wrote a post on my blog if you're interested in reading a review of the book.) I love your idea of using post-it notes. I hadn't thought about that but will definitely begin making notes to myself when I'm interrupted with a quilt in progress.
--Nancy. (ndmessier @ aol.com, joyforgrace.blogspot.com)
P.S. I love your Drunkard's Path blocks. It's fun to see how others use fabrics I have in my stash, too.
--Nancy.
I still haven't tried a drunkard's path, curves always worry me whether they are machine or hand stitched. I am hoping to conquer them soon as I have just signed up for a class with Katy Jones at Simply Solids to do curved piecing.
Your handwork is beautiful. Good idea with the post-it notes. I often have "great" ideas, and then when I revisit them later, I have no idea what the great idea even was!
Love the water melon. I think I'm enjoying a return to embroidery more than I'm enjoying machine piecing at the moment.