A Different Use of Time

Thanks so much for the feedback on my last post. You've given me lots to add to my ruminations about the shibori piece. Some of your thoughts mirror my own and give clarity and direction while others are sending me in additional directions. Bottom line, this piece needs more thought, more work, more diving in. But when I wrote the post, it was not the day for that. Instead, I went off and did something totally different, which is the nice thing about having so much hanging about waiting for my attention. I'd scanned my October reminder list (which to my surprise I have made pleasing progress on) and spotted midway down: "Finish processing Judi's fabrics - it's been a year!" Yes, that's just what I wrote. It was late last September that I traveled to her home to sort through and divvy up her stash with another quilting friend. It all had to be, at the minimum, washed because of my allergies to Judi's cats, and the majority of the dyed fabric needed setting with Retayne. I'd brought home yards and yards of fabric - at least three bags stuffed full - and have been pecking away at it off and on since earlier this year. I'd' gotten to the last few loads before summer kicked in and never got back to it. With deadlines gone and pressure off, it was definitely time to get the last of it washed, ironed and filed away.

So that's what I've been doing the last two days, and as usual, what I am running across is sparking ideas and providing solutions. It was a triumph to go from "meh" on the new art quilt to "hey" on another side project I was about to tackle. Back when Judi and I first experimented with dyeing, we also played a bit with marbling (with less than wonderful results). It was delightful to find these in her stash, to see she had as much trouble figuring out how to use hers as I did mine. While we tried the same techniques in joint sessions, our personal styles still managed to show through - I can tell these are Judi's and not mine, they just have her stamp on them. But the real fun was when I ironed this one and laid it on the table not far from that piece of art cloth I stamped. I want to turn it into some kind of handbag, had found a pattern to give me some guidance and had been searching for a lining. I think this might be the perfect fun lining to compliment it.

So I wouldn't exactly say I turned a lemon day into lemonade, but some good came out of walking away from my momentary frustration with the new idea, and doing something supposedly uncreative.