Savor Each Stitch – Page 3 – Wanda's Life Sampler

Take a moment to pause.

It’s hard for me to pause. I’m in a hurry to get things done and the faster the better. But, I slow down when I hand quilt. The news is that quilters are slowing down.

Why?

Quilting Daily says it’s because the quilting frenzy of tools and fabric and social media posts are stressing us out.

One of my Book Bee participants (where we’re exploring Savor Each Stitch: Studio Quilting with Mindful Design ) sent me the above post. In it, the author writes:

Mindful creating, or paying close attention to what you’re doing. how you are doing it, and the materials you’re using, can help you regain the “Zen” of your favorite pastime. Not to mention how much better your results will be.

The author cites Mark Lipinski’s Slow Stitching Movement as an example of this approach. When I explored his blog, it was overwhelming. I couldn’t decide where to go first, so I just quit looking. That’s a good place to start. Just stop looking!

And, for my exploration of the chapter in Savor Each Stich, “Contrast,” I’m hand quilting my quilt. (featured photo above)

I love hand quilting. Over the last year I’ve made more than 3 million stitches on my machine trying to improve my free motion quilting. It worked. I got a lot done, but it’s time to pause and take a break from that. I’m going to take my time and not stress about my “to do list.” I’m going to pause and savor each stitch.

Pausing,

Wanda

I’m participating in a Book Bee with a few members of the Houston Modern Quilt Guilt. We’re using Carolyn Friedlander’s book, Savor Each Stitch. I learned of this group from the blog, ModQuiltMom. They meet in Houston, Texas the first Saturday every other month, and they were gracious to allow me to follow along using a Google community page. Our goal: to share pictures, links and thoughts about our book bee.

The first chapter was Lines:

I took a literal approach to this design challenge. Sometimes I help my husband (football coach) paint the lines on the football field. The initial setup for painting the field is like laying off the foundation for a new home. It involves stakes, string and measuring tape. From that experience, I sketched my idea for a small quilt, called “Date Night.”

One evening while we were painting the field, one of the players and his mother drove by the school and his mother suggested her son volunteer to help us. After speaking with my husband, he came back to his mother and said, “No. He doesn’t need help. It’s ‘Date Night.'” The player’s mother enjoyed telling us this story. That’s just downright funny and the perfect name for this quilt.

From there, I started sewing from my “green” scrap bin, except I had about a half yard of kelly green.

My husband suggested the “end zone” needed blue accents. I like how the “end zone” is very liberated and the rest of the field is linear.

Carolyn Friedlander uses dense free motion quilting in many of her quilts. I wanted to try that:

I used high loft batting to give the grass some texture. I’m debating if I should quilt the white lines and if I should quilt in the name of the quilt on the front rather than on a label on the back. I’m going to let it stew for awhile and when I come back to this quilt I should know how I feel about doing that.

I’m enjoying this Book Bee and seeing what the other quilters are doing. The next chapter is Contrast. Initially I wanted to make a small quilt for each chapter in the book, but I’ve learned making Date Night that all the elements of thoughtful design were used in making this quilt. My desire to make multiple quilts was unrealistic. I always have lots of ideas and not enough time to turn those ideas into actual quilts.

CF writes in her book about sketching ideas over and over until you find the essence of your idea. I feel I rush through that process and taking the time to get out the “stakes, string and measuring tape” should improve my design process. At the same time I like just fiddling with fabric and seeing what happens when there is no plan. It’s a tough balance.

Update: Here is the finished quilt: