quilting — Page 14

On a Cold Sunday Morning

January 20, 2013 at 9:01 am by Claudia

This particular Sunday starts what promises to be a frigid week. Temperatures during the day will be in the twenties and temps at night will be in the single digits. Yikes. Yesterday it was warm enough to melt a great deal of the snow. I don’t think there will be any more snow melt for several days!

Ah, but I have my big old queen sized quilt to keep me warm as I sit on the chair or sofa, hand quilting each square. It would be insufferable in a warmer month. Grandma had the right idea; work on a quilt or two every winter. I now have five rows of blocks quilted. I’m in the middle of the sixth. There’s a lot more to go.

quiltlaundrybasket

I’ve resorted to plopping the whole thing on top of the vintage wire laundry basket, which now does double duty as both a yarn and quilt holder.

flowerfrog

This flower frog has been transformed into a pen and crochet hook holder. It sits on the table right next to my blogging chair.

Can I stop to mention just how much I don’t care about any of the Kardashians or their publicity craving mother? Or any of the Surreal Housewives of any city? Or any bachelors or bachelorettes? Or pretty much anyone who thinks I want to tag along as they live their unreal, completely staged lives?

Or how sick I am of commercials where the actors stress the pronouns, as in ‘me, my, I, our’? As a text coach for the theater, I know that one of the cardinal rules of speaking is not to stress the pronoun. It’s a pronoun, for goodness sakes. The verb is more important than the pronoun. The subject is more important. The action is more important. In Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter verse, which scans ‘da DUM, da DUM, da DUM,’ 98% of the time the pronoun will be unstressed. It will fall in the ‘da’ unstressed part of the beat. If it falls in the stressed part of the beat (DUM), it’s for a specific reason. As in “No, you misunderstand me, it’s not just anyone’s dog, it’s MY dog.” Then it’s okay. But all of this ‘me, my, mine, I, we’ stress jars my ears. I asked a friend who works in Los Angeles about it and was told that ad companies and producers are requesting this sort of thing nowadays. Because any actor worth his salt would not stress the pronoun. They are being told to do that. I guess the advertising world has decided that we consumers could use even more self-absorption than we already have. I know I’m especially sensitive to this kind of thing, but next time you’re watching television for any length of time, see how often you hear this sort of thing. There’s one commercial out right now for Dr. Scholl’s inserts that, to my ears, is the equivalent of fingernails on a blackboard. I have to mute it.

I know I sound like a teacher. But I am a teacher. It’s in my DNA.

In closing, Scout has become radioactive:

scoutglow1

She’s glowing.

Have a happy Sunday.

signature2

Embracing and Loving Less than Perfect

January 17, 2013 at 8:46 am by Claudia

quilt1

I’ve been slowly and steadily hand quilting lately. Since there’s so much pattern in this particular quilt, I decided to do something simple. I started out quilting a square with an X and thought I would do that for every square, creating a simple grid. But then I decided to alternate an X with an O. It makes for a more interesting design. I didn’t realize the connection to hugs and kisses (xoxo) until later but it’s sort of perfect for a quilt that will reside on our bed.

Hand quilting is a lovely, slow-paced activity. I’ve developed the required callus on my left index finger. My thimble and I have become friends again. Some days the stitches are perfectly tiny and consistent. Other days, they are less than perfect and irregular and that’s okay with me.

Less than perfect. Can I tell you how long I struggled with perfectionism? Years and years and years. Only in my ‘more mature’ years have I accepted and embraced the concept of less than perfect. Less than implies something lacking. So maybe that’s not the best way to describe what I’m going for here, since I don’t believe that, in the end, anything is lacking. How about not-quite-perfect? Or who-cares-about-perfection? Or, what the heck, less-than-perfect? Whatever way you put it, I’m in.

quilt2

I spent so many years feeling I had to be correct in all my answers to questions, to execute any sort of activity or craft flawlessly. Yes, I’m smart and I had a lot of the answers. But not always. And sometimes I did execute something perfectly. But very rarely. Most often, I tried, made mistakes, and felt like a failure when I couldn’t do whatever it was perfectly. Do you know what happens then? You give up. You no longer try. Because if being perfect is your goal, well then, you’re never going to try something new and just see what happens. You’re never going to have the joy of creating something in all its imperfect glory.

quiltback

Years ago, when Don gave me that present of a beginning quilting class, I remember distinctly the day my instructor, after listening to my frustration about correctly matching the corners of a triangle, said to me, “You’re a perfectionist, aren’t you?” And the inflection she used made it very clear that perfectionism was going to hang me up, that it was keeping me from experiencing and enjoying the process of creation. She had me pegged.

That conversation has stayed with me through the years. And I’ve grown to embrace and welcome imperfection in my work and in my creative life. Coaching actors has taught me that though I may give precise notes for an actor after a performance, though I may drill that actor in a sound over and over, in the end, I have no control over that actor’s performance. He might execute the sound one time, and forget all about it another time. And at some point, I have to let go and let him be. Flaws and all.

quilt3

The same holds true for the creative process. Every stitch isn’t going to be perfect. Some corners will match perfectly, others will be off. All of that holds true in this particular quilt. I look at some of my little squares and see clearly mismatched corners. I don’t know how that happened, but it did. After a moment or two of consternation, of the immediate impulse to think, “You screwed up, Claudia” I now move on and accept the imperfection. It’s what it is. It’s my work, for better or worse, and frankly, I think it’s all for the better. Less than perfect doesn’t make me love my creation any less. Less than perfect is just fine. Because the creative process is so rewarding that it’s worth it. So what if things are a bit wonky? Who cares? This beautiful quilt, lovingly made by my own hands, will grace our bed for years. Every square, every bit of piecing, every bit of hand quilting has come from my heart – warts and all.

quilt4

It’s so freeing, this embrace of less than perfect. It allows me to feel joy in the process and compassion for myself. I’m no less proud of my imperfect quilt than I would be of a perfect quilt. I still strive to be the best I can be, of course. I try to figure it all out and do better the next time. But I guarantee you, there will always be an imperfection or two or three…

I love that.

Have you struggled with the need to be perfect in what you do?

Happy Thursday.

signature2

Cheerfully Creative Clutter

January 13, 2013 at 9:17 am by Claudia

I seem to have taken over the den with all my paraphernalia . (My husband might say that I tend to do this will all the spaces in our home.) From my station in my blogging chair, this is what I see (no editing or staging, of course):

coffeetable1a

The coffee table: A basket full of stacks of books, papers, a Scrabble game. A catalog from a company selling miniatures. A catalog from Garnet Hill. The remote. 2 DVDs. (This week we’ve received preview copies of two movies, Silver Linings Playbook and Argo through the Screen Actors Guild and yesterday we received 3 more that are available for download on iTunes. I think I’m watching some movies this week!) My eyeglass case. My agenda. Quilting supplies: thread, air erasable fabric marking pens, a ruler, an old dog food measuring cup that I use to trace circles on my quilt.

quiltondesk

The desk: the usual things plus two books, an obsession scarf due to be mailed out tomorrow, a quilting hoop and The Quilt. Handquilting a queen-size quilt is an awkward operation. I constantly have to move layers of fabric around in order to get the hoop readjusted and find a way to get my left hand under the quilt. It’s big. It’s bulky. I’ve quilted 3 rows of blocks so far. Yesterday, Scout and I took the day off. We were exhausted. I sat in the chair hand quilting. In the evening, I moved to the sofa. We watched old westerns all afternoon: Wagon Train, Bonanza, The Big Valley, The Rifleman. And then I watched Ironman in the evening. I’d never seen if before. I like Robert Downey, Jr. He’s never boring.

den

And in this corner: yarn and lots of it. You see what I mean? All sorts of things. Add to that all the stuff on my chairside table and ottoman. I’ll spare you that.

As I looked at it yesterday, I liked seeing the cheerful clutter. Then I wondered what Don would think if he was also trying to exist in this space. The truth is that he would be just fine with it. He always says that he likes seeing creative clutter. He thinks it makes a home come alive.

I think he’s right.

I’m off to visit all the links from yesterday’s post.

And I’m linking this post to Elaine’s Sunny Simple Sundays.

Happy Sunday.

signature2

On a Cold Sunday Morning

Embracing and Loving Less than Perfect

Cheerfully Creative Clutter

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

Archives