Rekindling an Old Love

One of my aspirations for fall is to use the time to creatively heal. Crochet has been absolutely amazing for me this past year, and I am very grateful for how much it's helped me deal with my ongoing struggle with arthritis-induced limitations. Yet I'm still fighting myself and my dislike of how little I can hand stitch anymore, and the fallout is that I'm not quilting much at all.

It's time to fall back in love with sewing, with my sewing machine, with fabric, and with making things from fabric. I don't have to hand stitch to quilt, and I know it.

Fabric still grabs my heart. I have, do and always will love fabric. That's the place to start, because 1) I already have a lot of fabric and 2) I still want to make things with it.

The other thing I haven't been thinking about is how good it feels to work with fabric and turn it into something. I love that, even when I don't hand stitch it. When I made the mat for my nephew's dog's bowl stand last month I used the machine for all the sewing and quilting.

I was really proud of the machine quilting, too.

The only thing I did by hand was baste shut by hand the gap from turning it right sides out. I was tempted to do hand quilting but my fingers wouldn't let me. I accepted that and used the sewing machine instead. I adore that little mat and how it came out. Is it perfect? Nope. Nothing I make ever is. The thing is, for once I didn't regret being unable to hand stitch it.

Quilted projects give me a spiritual boost because I taught myself how to quilt when I was first diagnosed with arthritis back in the 80's. It was in a sense a physical therapy to keep my stiff, painful fingers active, but in the end it turned out to be one of the most positive things in my life simply because it was something I could do despite my arthritis. That remains true even minus the hand stitching now.

Back at the end of August I decided to make every other project something sewn or quilted, and I was somewhat success with that. This month I intend to stick to that goal. Every other project I make will be sewn or quilted using the fabric I have on hand. I want to make another Halloween quilt. I want to have fun. Most of all, I want to fall back in love with the art that saved my soul.

Image credit: pins image by Delyth Williams, rolled fabric image by Mark Martins, crazy quilt image by Chen, all from Pixabay

Comments

Old Loves & Such

My guy kindly bought me my favorite Chinese take out the other night, and my fortune cookie offered up an interesting story starter: This sounds sweet, right? Only the first thing I thought of was an old love coming back from the dead . . . . must be October. In other lovely news, my favorite hand-dyed thread artist, Lorraine from Colour Complements , is moving her business from Etsy to her own web site. Many of my favorite sellers on Etsy are leaving due to the whole "free shipping" coercion debacle, which has also soured me on the site. To show support I did a little shopping at Lorraine's web site and got in these: I love her threads and trims; you simply can't buy anything like them anywhere. Her work makes my specialty thread box look like a treasure chest: At night I'm spending just as hour working on quilting the scrap project runner, and I'm making slow progress: I'll keep quilting the runner while I try to decide on a design for t...

Fell Off the Wagon

I did cut up that plastic dollar tote to make into something stronger, but got caught up with work and set it aside. Then last night some hand-dyed silk and pretty threads called my name, and, well . . . Felt SO good to do some handwork, except my neck began hurting about an hour into it. I tried changing the way I sit and work, but it's pretty obvious that the doc is right.

Wild Ride

Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds is an epic, dazzling film that hurls you into the Korean version of the afterlife while showcasing some of the most impressive special effects I've ever seen in any movie. The story begins with the death of firefighter Kim Ja-Hong (Cha Tae-hyun) who jumps out of a burning building with a child in his arms. The kid lives, but he dies at the scene. Two strangers inform him that he has passed away right on schedule, and toss him into a vortex that takes him to the world of the afterlife, where he meets his three guardians: Gang-rim (Ha Jung-woo), Haewonmak (Ju Ji-hoon) and Lee Deok-choon (Kim Hyang-gi). At the gates of the afterlife Ja-Hong learns that he is considered a paragon (an exemplary person who lived a noble and self-sacrificing life) and is eligible to be reincarnated -- but there's a catch. First he has 49 days to make it through seven hells in which he will be judged on his sins. His three guardians will help and defend...

Valerean

Search This Blog