Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Goals for Week of Jan 23rd

I didn't do too badly last week, although I fizzled out a bit towards the end of it. I started out gangbusters, completing the prep for Saturday's workshop, getting a good start on the journal quilt and even hunkering down to tackle and complete the hand quilting on my list. I chalk up some of my enthusiasm to getting that brief spate of identity crisis under control. What I wish I could get a better handle on, though, is sustaining momentum. No, I'm not going to regale you with my wisdom on the matter, because it is one of my bigger problems that I have yet to solve. I'm sure my notes from "The Creative Habit" harbor a suggestion or two, but I haven't taken the time to check. At any rate, momentum returned on Sunday and is still with me today. It may be a defense mechanism to keep my mind preoccupied so I don't unduly obsess over the workshop. There isn't another thing I need to do for it short of packing everything up on Friday, but my mind has a way of worrying anyway if I let it.

Frankly, I was a bit reticent to write down any goals yesterday. I haven't a good explanation for why having a commitment at the end of the week makes me not want to commit to anything else in the time between, but I think that is part of it. Oh, I plan to get some work done; I just don't want to promise what it will be in case I can't concentrate well after all. But something else is going on, too. I feel a need to work open-ended, almost in free-fall, to deviate from the task at hand if an idea comes to me and I want to pursue it. I'm remembering the outcome of doing just that a few weeks ago, the unintentional piece that made me think in a new way, my brother's comment to "Remain open to the underlying serendipity of life." So although I set out a few goals, I've found the last two days to be ones urging me to work in a stream-of-consciousness manner. Not very controlled, and certainly not very disciplined, but amazingly liberating and satisfying to stop and pursue a new idea or a thought about a simmering one rather than set it aside and fail to get back to it, or lose it altogether. Oddly enough, it hasn't made me feel disorganized, nor has it had the effect of weighing me down which sometimes happens when I get too many things going at once. I think it worked on my brain a bit like when I write things down on paper. It was progress I could see, thoughts and ideas joined fabric and embellishments, safely tucked away in their own little containers and ready for the next step when I am ready to proceed.

So here's what I thought could happen this week: I could seam the backing and batting for the WFW quilt - maybe even get it tied. That's one of those no-brainer sorts of projects. On the other hand, I started some beading on the journal quilt, and any of you beaders out there know how time consuming (but enjoyable) beading can be. With this mood I'm in, I could see myself easily spending the rest of the week on that. As for my handquilting, I am ready to move on to another square and will try to finish one heart and one corner motif.

One other thing I've been working on this week - an unexpected pleasure cropping up from my past - is an assessment of some old blocks and ideas of how to put them together. I used to live in a little town that had no guild, but I found a small group of ladies who met once a week to work on various sewing projects for their church. A couple of them worked on quilts and welcomed me to their meetings. It didn't take them long to find out I had a soft spot for old fabric and quilt tops/blocks. One of the ladies called me last week wondering if I'd look at some blocks that had been donated to them. See? I can't escape my traditional past, nor do I want to!

1 comment:

margaret said...

Those blocks are charming waifs! I can see why you might want to give them a "home"...