Sunday, December 28, 2014

The Path to Productivity

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In the back of my mind, I've always had this idea that I want to chronicle my quilts, wall hangings, projects, what-have-you. When I am gone from this world, there should be a road map to follow if for some odd reason, my "creative" life becomes interesting to family and friends.  What was I up to all those years?  What did I DO down in that Sewing Studio?  WHY are there so many Vintage Sewing Machines here?  The older I get, the more loss I suffer, the more I understand that in the end, it's how you lived and how much you loved those around you. When someone leaves us, we reflect on their lives.  If you are a quilter, or know a quilter - you likely have a level of understanding that the creative process is a BIG part of the journey.   The Meditation, Healing, Grieving, Laughing, Fellowship....there are so many emotions and memories associated with hand-made things.   It's not just quilts.  I've watched the oddest, silliest things become sentimental and irreplaceable after someone is gone. Anyway....I digress.

I've been focusing on updating the "My Projects" tab on my blog.  This is the time of year when creative people make goals.  Deadlines.  Commitments.  They think about the gifts they would have LIKED to give away during the holidays that never quite got done.  They are bound and determined to be MORE productive next year! You might see "2015 UFO Challenge"(Unfinished Fabric Objects) or "Top Ten WIPS" (Works in Progress) or the latest acronym I've heard from one of my besties...."PIBs" (Projects in Bags).   

Personally... I have, what I like to call, Creative ADD.   If you've seen the movie "UP"...you'll get it.


My creative interests bounce from one thing to another pretty fast.  Once I stop procrastinating and START a project I've wanted to do, I dive into it both feet.  And they are usually BIG projects...so many BIG projects...lol   Then...as I'm cruising along, there's a break.   A retreat, a class, a trip to a quilt shop with friends, browsing Pinterest, a quilt show...   You see something new and all of a sudden your brain takes off on the new project!   You can't stop thinking about it, planning it, looking for pieces, parts to do it..... while the one you are already working on is all laid out in front of you, nagging at you to keep going with the really boring part.  And then.....Life.   Life smacks you in the face with something hard, sad, confusing, frustrating....and pulls you away.  Rinse and repeat.

So as I'm making an internal commitment to myself to get out every single WIP and get it posted to "My Projects" tab on my blog...  I am finding myself going down memory lane.  Touching the fabric, finding stacks of partially completed units and looking at sketches of things are bringing me back to moments in my life I hadn't reflected on.  These things are truly SOOOOO personal to us! But who wants to pull out pieces\parts of memories.   They need to be finished!!!  







1 comment:

  1. Very nice thoughts! I too have been thinking along these lines. When I first started quilting I said I was only going to work on one project at a time.........yeah right! LOL

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