In quilting, much like in life, the path we travel often lacks complexity; a routine can be followed that will keep us on course. Other times, we need help a map can offer. This week’s English Paper Piecing block, Morning Frost, reflects the complexity that has settled into my life this season. On the surface, it looks simple. Yet without the map guiding me, the subtle differences threatened to trip me up and make the task more difficult than necessary. Taking the time to make a map, or a set of steps to follow, preserved the easy and joy of the journey.
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You can download this week’s block with this link.
One of the first things a quilter learns when researching or designing a patchwork block is that color makes all the difference. Sometimes, the placement of light and dark fabric will change the overall look, and even the name of the block can be different because of the choices. In this week’s block, designing with three high contrast, warm colors created a star that was reminiscent of a yearly wheat harvest. Changing the fabric choices to a Christmas theme created a different look all-together. Since I am working on a vintage fabric quilt, I chose fabrics with less contrast, but still high impact because of the cream background. Whatever you choose, this pinwheel star is perfect for any season or palette.
Every year crafters work endless hours making the special items they hope will bring joy to others. On their own, they may not seem like such investments in time, but when added together into a collection, the magnitude of effort is revealed.
This year, I have decided to designate a decorated box for each of my children as a place to collect the items I am making with them in mind. It not only works as a way to stay organized, but it has the added advantage of becoming a treasure chest of sorts. Each item added, while on its own might seem simple or small, will become part of a collection representing the love I have for the recipient, and a reflection of the joy I experienced in the making of gifts.
There will be an added gift in the treasure box – a gift that I will receive. If fatigue or doubt threaten to dampen my seasonal joy, I can simply open the boxes one by one and see the result of my efforts. It will be a reminder that my fatigue is the price I have chosen to pay in order to make gifts, gifts crafted from love, for my children.
I discuss this treasure box idea in this week’s video. Plus I will share how I have used patchwork and printables to create ornaments for my Christmas tree. You will find below three downloadable files with patterns/templates for a few of the projects I share this week. I hope they bring you as much joy as they did me.
I often wonder if animals get as confused as we do when the weather doesn’t follow normal patterns. Based on a traditional Flying Geese pattern, this block takes a twist, with one column of geese flying in an opposite direction.
Confused Geese is a fairly straight forward block to piece. You construct each goose unit, apply sashing strips, and then borders. Much like the geese in my block, I was confused when I assembled it (as I discuss in my vlog this week), but the block worked out well despite my oops. I chuckled to think that the confusion the geese in the block were experiencing might have been contagious.
I hope you enjoy making this block as much as I did.
In the world of crafting, the UFO is anything but a rare occurrence. UnFinished Objects, the UFO, can also be called unfinished fiber objects in the world of knitting and crochet. At its heart, the UFO is simply a project that, once stated, was never finished. It is important to distinguish the UFO from the Grab n Go projects many crafters keep at a ready for times when crafting is out in the wild (dentist’s office’s lobbies, children’s school performances, stressful social engagements). It is also important to note that the UFO should not be mistaken for the slow projects kept on hand for the occasional break from the must-make-as-fast-as-possible projects and what-was-I-thinking projects which often dominate the crafters time. The UFO is separate from the rest, often because it is tossed into a hidden corner and somewhat forgotten.
However, this languishing UFO is not the only type of UFO in the crafter’s universe. Sometimes a UFO is simply a project put aside because life gets in the way of finishing. It might even be relegated to the infamous To Do pile, much like mending a favorite item of clothing. Every indication says that it will get done, just not at this particular moment. These UFOs are often the joy-filled projects a crafter begins but a misjudgment of time for completion occurs.
It is one of these latter types of UFO I completed this week along with all my other fiber and fabric fun. I share my UFO bag, this week’s English Paper Piecing block, and a few quick projects in my vlog.
From my earliest days of quilting, I have been drawn to star blocks. Whether created by using half-square triangles or diamonds, they never fail to entice me. However as far as ease of construction goes, they have caused me frustration. Maintaining each and every point on a star is not the easiest of tasks, especially when in a hurry to see the project finished. Switching to a slower process like English Paper Piecing, much like with foundation piecing, offers a way to get precision with less frustration. In the past, I have dabbled with foundation piecing as a way to get my star blocks precise, but while I did enjoy the process, it never clicked for me like EPP has. Maybe my new found love of EPP has a great deal to do with my current need to slow down just a bit.
During periods of life when the future is more unsure than what we have come to expect, or when we feel like we are standing on shaky ground, slow-crafting has the potential to calm our mind. While finished objects and busy hands often motivate the hand-crafting world, many crafts can be done with speed without the loss of accuracy. EPP, like other hand sewing crafts, requires focus, even when the skill is performed by the hands of a master. Every stitch is placed in just the right spot to create strength, yet small enough to seemingly disappear when the block is finished. Over time, rhythmic precision develops, but focus is still required.
Working with an EPP block offers the crafter a choice –
focus on the stitches while also focusing on a movie or audio book so that you mind won’t wander,
or focus only on the stitches so your mind will wander with the hope that it will work through the stresses of the day.
As hand-crafters, we often choose our patterns and projects with these two choices in mind. It is likely the reason why we keep so many projects going at the same time. We have projects that fit for both of the choices above, so we can easily pick one based of the need of the moment.
Right now, my need has me picking a project that keeps me focused on my hands rather than focused things outside my control. In truth, I’m not at all surprised I have gravitated to so many star blocks as I plan out the EPP quilt. Whether wishing on a star, or simply taking in their sparkling beauty, star gazing, much like slow-crafting can quiet the mind during troubled times.
Change is unavoidable and sometimes very painful. It can also open us to opportunities we may otherwise never have seen had the change not occurred. However change, especially when it is a mighty life change, can bring on a sense of loss, even a sense of mourning for that which we had or for whom we were before the change occurred.
Mourning a loss is never an easy process, and it is seldom a speedy one. Permitting oneself the time and space to mourn is not merely important, it is vital.
Simple steps each day can help us through both the change and the loss we might feel because of the change, but sometimes even simple steps can feel overwhelming.
Sometimes we need the quiet that solitude provides us. Sometimes we need space – the space to process, to mourn, and to adjust. Other times we need companionship.
While no one can adjust, heal, or live for us, many can give us a helpful hand.
One of life’s greatest lessons is learning how to move each day – physically and mentally move each and every day. When we stop moving, we stop life.
Sometimes, no matter how strong willed we are, we need help moving. Just like when we seek physical therapy after an injury or severe illness has made our body struggle, we may need to seek help when it is our mental or spiritual health that is struggling. Seeking help and acquiring help may also require us to experience more change, but this change might be one of the most valuable aids to helping us through the bigger life change which is causing us so much struggle.
We must find a way to keep on keeping on. To keep on living, and to keep on looking for those opportunities that now might be more clearly seen because of a mighty life change.
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I will vlog again, and probably sooner than later. This is just breathing time.
What do we seek on this journey or from this experience? Taking time to ask this question of ourselves affords us the opportunity to understand the answer despite any excitement or anxiety we might feel.
Do we hope to learn something? Connect with someone? Are we planning to challenge ourselves, or are we simply hoping to embrace the joy of the experience? Maybe there is a bit of all of this in our plans. However, it is not just the meandering, spur-of-the-moment journey that includes unforeseen excitement or anxiety. We can become frustrated or even lose our way if we have not taken the time to understand what we are seeking.
Origins of This Thought
When this thought first began swirling around my head, I was contemplating the way personal relationships can devolve. A brief conversation with a stranger had left me troubled. The stranger had conveyed how difficult they were struggling now that they were the guardian of their young grandchild. Their struggle was one of lost hope, as much as one of real challenge. Their expectations of this new, full-time relationship was fraught with the dread of knowing life was going to be forever changed, and was going to be quite difficult due to the child’s very specific struggles.
I was troubled by the lack of hope the stranger shared. Many hours later, this thought came to mind.
What do we seek in our personal relationships? What do we hope to learn or experience?
While we may not be able to change the specific elements of human existence that make life hard, sometimes so hard we struggle to see a way forward, we are able to reimagine our expectations. Sometimes this can be achieved by simply identifying what it is we truly seek from the situation or the relationship. Often we are counseled to changed our perspective, but first we might be wise in understanding what it is we seek. From that understanding, our perspective, or in other words, our vantage point might become clear. We might even discover that our frustration is not from the challenges we face in this new journey, but simply from having become lost in the fog before reaching the summit.
Holidays, especially national days of remembrance, are days often flooded with memories; some memories more poignant than others, some tinged with sorrow rather than joy. We can feel even a bit conflicted as we navigate these holidays, questioning our activity choices or fighting feelings of inadequacy. Too often we may find ourselves questioning whether our own service is enough when others gave so much more.
Service to others – a family, a community, a nation – is not measured by volume. It is measured by impact, if it is even something that can be measured at all. Measuring the impact our service has upon a recipient isn’t something easily done, thereby requiring a huge amount of faith upon our part. The ripple affect of even the smallest act may simply be too imperceptible, or too immeasurable, and so, we may never fully understand the impact of our service. Therefore, we must exercise faith, and live in hope.
We can teach ourselves to serve with a hope that our service makes a difference. We can teach ourselves to seek out a need, rather than to serve from our own convivence. We can teach ourselves to put aside our own good intentions, so we can more clearly see the individuals who require our efforts. We can teach ourselves to look for opportunities and individuals, rather than waiting for others to ask for our help.
Holidays make good days to remember the person we want to be, even as they remind us to celebrate our efforts in becoming that person. Sometimes the opportunity to serve really is simply staring back at us in a mirror.
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In my latest vlog, I talk about service as a way to bust through our stashes – whether they are fabric, yarn, or any other crafting stash. Finding ways to share directly with others our precious stash can bring added joy into our lives.
Pithy Ponderings 