Originally Posted by amma
Dear Dr. Tim,
Every morning up on waking, I pour my coffee and sit at my sewing table and discuss with my singer our plans for the day. After pouring my second cup I go to the computer and spend and hour or two discussing quilting with other others who also enjoy this craft. The whole time that I am on the computer, I find my eyes drawn to my sewing machine, sitting there forlorn, alone, longing to be used…. I feel tremendous guilt for leaving it unattended. So, I cut my time short in the chat room to go to my machine… I lovingly dust it off and sit down and start sewing, a sense of peace and calm settles over me. But then, I glance over to the table, and there is my cutting mat, fabric and rotary cutter…. They look so lonely, wanting to do what they were made to do….so sad that they are being ignored. Now I am torn between the two, do I cut out more pieces, do I sew more pieces together, if only I had two more hands and arms! Oh no, now the fabric stash has got my attention….it is calling out to me, “come look at us, take us out, do not ignore us!” My memo board catches my attention, all the clippings and sketches staring back at me. Now what, I think as my computer dings… new emails, a sale at a quilting website, more fabric, threads, notions, I want to see what they have on sale, here is one on more free patterns, this one has pictures, another with instructions, but I need to quilt, I need to cut out fabric, I need to check my stash, write down more ideas…. Oh Dr. Tim, What Should I Do?????
amma,
I get up, I take the dargs out, feed them, feed the cats, make coffee, work on my photos, drop a note to anyone on the board that has written to me, check the board for more important stuff, get the coffee, go back to my studio, shovel out all the junk that mysteriously popped up overnight. I look at the quilt in progress, think "Will I work on this today or dream?"
Most days I work on it a bit. I really want to use the "F" word soon. I was thinking I would be getting tired of this old quilt, but ya know, if I keep working on it much longer, my daughter might not get it at all. I am getting pretty fond of it.
On days I dream, I look at the almost finished geese blocks, I look at all the HSTs that need trimming and sewing together. I pull out the magazine and refocus my thoughts as to how I want to finish that quilt. I then look at all the fabric I have pressed and hanging over the back of my rocking chair waiting for me to cut up for Latilla, another very male quilt I have in mind. I have so far resisted doing anything except cutting up the panels in muslin that is going to be the backing for the blocks. I then look at the piles of fabric I have for either a barn raising quilt or a bargello quilt. I bought the fabric for the barn raising, but then I picked up amagazine, 'Fabric Trends' with instructions on how to do the other. I don't worry too much about starting cutting on that one, the colors are still sifting through my mind. I then look at the pile of fabric called YBR sitting there waiting for me to re-iron and pin it into a quilt. This is when I start getting guilty. I usually work on the quilt in progress then for awhile. Then I go to work.
Does this help?
tim in san jose (Ah ain't got no $50s)