Quilting, reading, transitions and don't forget the giveaway!

My daughter and her boyfriend just spent four days with us here in Colorado.

We drove around, went to a Rockies game, went hiking and exploring, went on an Alpine Slide and just had fun. Exhausting, but fun.

I have been very lucky in having two out of my three kids come visit already. It has helped the transition to this new life.

That and quilting. Quilting has allowed me to keep busy, a fun busy, and to explore the area as I check out the local quilt shops and get the supplies that I need. It is also a connection to my old friends and my old life. Truly, a tie that binds me to my past, my present and my future.

I am reading an interesting book that I found quite by accident at the library. It is called Quilting Lessons- Notes from the Scrap Bag of a Writer and Quilter by Janet Catherine Berlo. Janet is a writer, art historian and a professor. And when she experienced profound writers block, she turned to quilting to work thru all the myriad of emotions and struggles as she quilted her way back to writing.

Quilting can be both therapeutic as well as the cause of it's own version of "block"- quilters block. Have you ever been working on a quilt, or a design and it just won't gel? Often the prescription is to walk away. And it is very good advice. Sometimes you need the distance to get a new perspective. I often find as I work on a pattern, that if I leave it alone, move onto something else and come back to it with fresh eyes, that I see a new possibility, or a glaring issue, that I could not see before.

This philosophy of walking away before something is done, getting distance of both time and space gives credibility to the practice of having multiple projects going at once, which is a common phenomenon among quilters. Do you do that?
Right now, I have soooo many projects in various stages. (Of course, I do think you can reach a tipping point of too many projects and therefore can become overwhelmed! But hey, that is part of the fun.)

Off to make a dent in my piles of projects!

Don't forget- I have a giveaway going on and so far, it looks like everyone who posted will win something! How fun is that? Of course, I need at least a couple more comments as I have a couple more goodies to give away! So click here on giveaway and add a comment!


And check back soon to see what this pile of adorable fabrics- Blitzen from BasicGrey- is going to become!

happy quilting,
Kate