Word of the Day: Devotion

The book says “if we have devotion – total faith and commitment to our spiritual [substitute craft for spiritual here!] path – our determination will naturally build momentum. Fewer and fewer obstructions will come before us. Our path becomes like a crooked one made straight. No matter what tries to keep us from our purpose we will not be deferred.”

I looked at this and thought creativity is totally about devotion, but had a hard time getting past the spiritual part until I realized that devotion means everything to me in terms of quiltmaking. There are different kinds of creative people who can all be said to be devoted to their craft or art. I think that the devotion truly comes when the person works on their creativity every day. The person devotes time every day to working on their creativity, art or craft.

Creativity is in all of us, but comes to the surface much easier with practice. It doesn’t mean, necessarily, that you get in front of the machine every day. It does mean engaging in some creative effort each day: reading quilt magazines, doodling, drawing, planning a new project, looking out the window of the bus at the world in terms of line, shape and color, ironing fabric, and, of course, cutting and piecing as well. The more one practices in some manner, the more easily the practice of creativity becomes.

Some regular activity keeps up the continuity of creativity.

Done with Blue


These are the fabrics that I started with. As I was cutting the FOTY pieces, They fell together and, as I said, I wanted to do something calm and quick-ish with them. I still like the fabrics together.

Here are all the pieces cut out and ready to sew. The contrast between the two photos (first photo above and the photo directly above) is striking. The photo of the cut pieces does not convey the look I was seeking at all. I think the dots was the right background choice from among the three I pulled, but I think the background strips should have been thinner.

Above is one pieced block.

Above are 6 completed blocks. I decided that these blocks are the sum of the Hop Skip and Jump blocks I will make. I am not getting the look that I want with this pattern. The blocks are pretty small and I would have to make at least 24 more to get a lap quilt. This is more of utilitarian quilt pattern and I am not interested in making it as a wall hanging. I enjoyed the sewing, but when it was time to cut more pieces I couldn’t face the work and decided to cut my losses. Perhaps I will make someone some small placemats since I didn’t sew the blocks together.

Tomorrow I am making a tote bag!

Word of the Day: Ablution (Jan 2)

I have to apologize to those of you who took me seriously when I said there was minimal ‘religion’ in this book. It is a Taoist book and today’s word does have quite a bit of the Taoist beliefs associated with it. I am not going to go into much of what the book said, but give you my interpretation. I wasn’t happy that this was the word of the day, but that’s life so I tried to think of ways ablution applied to quiltmaking.

The book talked about cleansing. When I go up to my workroom after several days of not being there, or after the end of a project, I have to tidy up and put things away. Sometimes I get so engrossed in a project that I have to tidy up in the midst of a project (especially if it involves lots of fabric!). I think that this is a kind of ablution in the quiltmaking process. While putting everything away, I often find myself thanking (I know this sounds dumb) my tools and supplies for their good performance on the last project while preparing my psyche, the space and the tools and supplies for the next project. It is a kind of ritual for me.