What have you learned
 

What have you learned from quilting that has helped you through this pandemic?

I have learned how to go thru my stash and destash fabrics. Sometimes I think "I don't even remember buying this fabric and why did I buy this fabric!!" Also, I have learned to sew slow and steady cause I have all day. No rushing to get something done.

Mask making, no matter how fun the fabric is, is not my happy place.

Playing with fabric, however, is always soothing and satisfying.

I'm having sort of a hard time getting starting on the projects I had planned to be working on this year and am no longer going to be bothered by that, they can wait until next year. I was doing pretty well dealing with things until a month or so ago, and I was really going into a dark place. Part of what I have learned (again) is that I need to try and be as kind to myself as I try to be to other people. I'm going to cut myself some slack and indulge myself a little more in the coming months.

And I'm going to play with fabric. I might end up with a mess (right now things are actually getting more organized), I might end up with a top, but I'm going to choose to see pretty things and think pretty thoughts and that's easier in my sewing room than in many other places.

\\Mask making was my "refuge" for a while.

Did not take a lot of fabric - might be useful - and I had some things that were finished.

Some turned out better than others - still learning/modifying -

Because I am/was mostly a stay-at-home, loner type of person - my life is not that much different "now" than "before".

I think the one thing I learned is to slow down and take things at a different pace. Before, I was always in a rush to design this quilt or that quilt, then sit on the information for months while I gathered supplies, then suddenly get a burst of energy and work night and day to get something done. It wasn't long, maybe two months before the pandemic, I stash busted out a nine-patch, queen sized quilt, just to ease my fabric woes because I felt I had too much, now I wish I had taken that quilt a little slower. I would have stopped to help make masks when the pandemic really started hitting the States.

A deeper sense of compassion and faith. I made a couple infant summer dresses and a sunbonnet for my brother's little one. that was very fun.
I am depending on my quilting for my "safe place" in the sewing room more. I am working on three quilts now. An I spy, a pieced bird and a pieced wiener dog quilt. That would be fun to finish those.

I have made tons of masks. They are always a positive fight towards the pandemic for me. It shows care and love to those who are out there daily.

After taking 12 quilt tops out of the closet to quilt and bind, and realizing that 8 of those tops were made from scraps from other quilts, and then seeing stacks of new yardage on the shelves, I have learned that I don't have to keep scraps and make something from them anymore.

I've learned that I'm never lonely when my 3 dogs are around. They are such loyal and true friends...that goes for the cat too. (And of course the QB gang.)

I've also learned that keeping calm through this storm and holding a steady course is best. I just have to, "loosen the jib and chart my course." Everything is going to be alright.

~ C

I have learned that I cannot control other people’s behavior, nor their beliefs. I can just do the right thing as well as I know.