On a much cheerier note..... Too Cute to Spook has been in stock for a few weeks, but this weekend I sold a ton of it. If you are still looking for a GORGEOUS halloween fabric, check this out. I have some free patterns to give away for orders over $75.00 too!

So visit our Ebay Shop To get yours!

Epic Failure! How many days did I skip?? Ok, well, I did go to my moms for almost a week to help with some chores, so I get a little bit of a pass.

Back at it.  I started a project this week that was born out of love too. But unlike the last one that just melted together with ease unimaginable, this one is trying me. My little Pfaff workhorse is being difficult. She'll sew any layers of a sample piece I put in with no effort, but put this quilt in and she rears up like a mad horse.

And I press on. I have ripped out, resewn, ripped out and resewn. With little progress. So I stepped away for a day or two. And it's had me pondering why some are easy and some are hard. And that thought applies to so many things. Quilts, work, relationships. Sometimes it all just falls into place and other times, even the simplest piece is fraught with angst. I have a relationship like this quilt in my world. It is one born out of love, but often so challenging. And it's  not the other person's "fault". It is my own. It is the way I approach this relationship. With expectation of ease when I know that has not been the path with this person. The parts that are "easy" are so precious, but we have this long history that has been full of love and yet,  complicated all at once. We have ripped stitches out and resewn ourselves a thousand times. And I keep expecting this resewing to be the one that holds and makes it all come together. And much like this quilt, it seems to not be the case. But I am expecting things that are likely not to be. This relationship is just as it is. Complicated, rich, maddening, sweet...If it were not for  my applying my expectations to the situation, I would be content with it as it is. You know, you be you and I'll be me sort of thing. But I keep wanting them to be like me...So unfair of me.

Makes my love so conditional just like my love for this quilt. So I will continue ripping out and resewing until the pieces come together as I know they will. And I will do so without the hope that it is today, this hour.  Rather, when the moment is right and the attempts I make to correct the issues are done with patience and love instead of demanding and frustrated.

Wishing you easy stitches in all you do,

barb

Focused day #2.......

You know that fabric that just doesn't quite "fit" the quilt but you feel like you have to use it. You bought it, it was supposed to be in the quilt. The manufacturer had it in the collection and yet it still seems "off" to you. 

Often times we get hung up on the way the quilt was "supposed" to be. Just like the picture, just like the vision in our head. When in reality, the light may be a little different, the flow may not be just as pictured. And I, like you, can get stuck on that. And generally it creates nothing but unrest. In me and by transference, in the quilt. I once did a quilt for a fireman. He had worked at many stations in his young life and had MANY t-shirts from different stations. He wanted a t-shirt quilt that would use all the varying patches on the t-shirts from all the fire stations. And I diligently went about putting this quilt together, having never done a t-shirt quilt before. And NOTHING about it seemed right. I couldn't get the frames around the patches the way I wanted. Couldn't find the perfect frame for each patch. Couldn't get the frames to look good next to each other.  Couldn't stop the quilt from growing into a monster size. I fretted and fretted. 

And then...One morning I came down to the sewing room/quilt shop and it was laying there on the cutting table with all it's pieces laying there waiting for me to start playing rearrange the puzzle again. I stood there looking lovingly on this mess, which represented a lifetime of memories to this young man. I wondered why am I fighting with this quilt so much? I wondered this aloud. Then I stood there just waiting for an answer.  And after an eternity it seemed, the quilt said to me, "This is so hard because you are fighting what I want to be. A big, complicated, busy quilt. Just let me be what I am." 

(Now before you get all worked up that quilts talk to me, it didn't actually say words lol. But I'll bet some of you know what I mean about a quilt talking to you.)

And in that instant, I understood why I was struggling so.  I wanted this quilt to be other than it was. Other than it was trying to show me. I wanted it to be my way. And I knew to stop fighting and let the quilt be who it was. 

So it is in life I have found. Often we wish things were other than they are. And in the wishing is suffering. Sometimes the acceptance is difficult too, but far less so than wishing something that wasn't.  So let your quilts teach you. They will if you listen. So will life. Sometimes the thing just needs to be as it is. The "solution" to your dilemma isn't in the thing causing the trouble, but in our unwillingess to sit with what is in front of us. 

Happy Sitting and Sewing Today,

barb

UFO's

As is my habit, I have neglected this blog. I'm not sure why. I love to write. But like the pile of UFO's in, on, and around my sewing table, so remains this blog-unattended to. So here goes another effort to refocus. It may stick, It may not. Time will show us I suppose. 

I've been pondering friendship lately. As I get older, the number of friends seems to be shrinking. I'm okay with that. Friends seems to show you who they are over time and some stay and some go. As is necessary with most things in life. There are people that no matter the time and space between you, things go on as though those parameters do not exist. Love flows without expectation or clingy "need". Just companionship, even from afar. A listening ear, a warm heart, a soft hug.

This occurred to me as a quilt appeared, suddenly completed, on my sewing table. It was as though, there was fabric for only a moment, and then it was a quilt, within hours. And I wondered how that came to be. And yes, I was the one that did it, but it seemed to happen of it's own doing. It has dawned on me slowly over the last couple of weeks that the quilt came to be so easily from a magical place. A connection formed long ago that despite years and distance, needed an affirmation of its existence. And so, literally, fabric was chosen (although I swear it chose itself), and a top was ready in hours. And then the backing was done and in another day the whole thing was quilted with absolutely no fighting from the machine. And now it lays bound and ready to be given. 

Seems to me, it's like that in life. We think we chose people, whether friends, loves, even "family". But in reality, they come as we yearn for them . Appearing at the moment most perfect, leaving, if they must, at the moment most perfect. Perhaps not a seemingly perfect moment, but perfect nonetheless.  

And so do quilts. Some come easily, falling together effortlessly almost. As though you are watching them happen. Some we struggle with. Fabric not quite right. Pattern not quite right. "Feel" of the whole thing not quite right. It's then that we most often, need to lay the fabric down for a bit. Whether the "fabric" is actual or not, you know what I'm saying. Just lay it down. Walk, breathe, move away from it for a period of time. Come back and see if clarity finds you and the quilt. (or whatever). When we "force" quilts together, they often leave us wishing it was different when completed. It is similar in other areas of life too. I am learning to just lay it down for a while. Come back later. See whats there to really work with. Perhaps it'll reveal where it needs changing. Perhaps it'll reveal a do-over. 

Perhaps it'll reveal that it's perfect as it is. I just needed to see with new eyes. 

Happy Sewing,

barb