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Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Color Therapy, I need some

Do you force yourself to sew/piece/quilt when life is not turning out like you expect? Do you let things bother you and affect your sewing? Or are you an even keel kind of person?

I sure wish I could say that I leave my emotions and frustrations at the sewing room door but that's not the case. Some days just playing with fabric helps me de-stress but unfortunately that sometimes isn't the case.

I've always felt a little guilty for setting aside a project and working on something else but that's exactly what I should have done last week. I've been piecing the selvage spiderweb blocks together and here are two rows of the blocks. Take a closer look at the web on the far left. Half of it is colorful and maybe even a bit too red but what happened on the other half? Brown, brown, brown. Guess what kind of mood I was in?!? I realize God made every color beautiful but brown is just not one of my favorites.

Some of you might not even notice the brownness but every time I see that row, I'm reminded of something very disappointing that happened in my family last week. Its not going to go away and I can't change it, just my attitude toward it.

I'm stepping away from the selvage spiderwebs for at least a few days and maybe even a week or two. No matter how badly I'd like to finish this quilt, I need to wait until I'm excited to work on it again. I'll pick out my brown spiderweb, change it out with some more colorful pieces and restitch it one of these days but not now. Most of the time, you can have a do over on a quilt but usually not in life. We all live with the consequences of our choices.

So what am I working on? This past weekend, I purchased Bonnie Hunter's new book, Scraps & Shirttails II. Most of you know I've been trying to sew down my "Resource Center" so I'm always looking for projects that are scrappy and I found several in this book I'd like to make!

From the moment I saw the "Criss Cross Applesauce" quilt, I knew I wanted to make it so I've begun to cut out the pieces. I hope to reduce my green fabric by half and the reds probably by that much too. I'm not even half done with cutting but this step has been very therapeutic so far. That could be because there's a new blade in my rotary cutter or maybe its because I like the idea of using up some of my old fabric or very likely because its the excitement of a new project!

Here in Kansas the snow is melting away! We're enjoying mild temperatures this week and very possibly next week too. I highly doubt this is spring but believe me, I'm enjoying every minute of the weather this week!

5 comments:

Gypsy Quilter said...

I once lived in an older house with a small hall closet. I put all of the quilt tops in there to "simmer" until I figured out how I wanted to move forward with them. That was a dozen years ago and some are still "simmering". It's okay to set something aside and move on for a bit. Whatever color therapy you need to do to get through is okay. It's your life and your quilt.

Merilyn said...

Sometimes when a project doesn't turn out the way it was supposed to, put it aside and move onto something else, when you return to it you will see it in different eyes, you will either give it to someone else to play with or you will fall in love with it again, just enjoy the process, guilt free!!!

Barb said...

When I'm upset with the "real life" I'm living sewing usually helps. I'm not usually creative but just the act of sewing or quilting can be comforting.
Maybe you can consider leaving the red/brown patch in as a reminder that life has its downs, but also its ups.

Jossie said...

I can understand your feelings about brown. I don't like browns in quilts either. (to be honest I hate brown in quilts)It makes me feel depressed even if I am in a cheerful mood. If I really need to use brown like in the CWD quilt I always take a reddish brown to make the quilt not look stuffy. Try a Turkish red or a madder red. It always helps me. Hope your quilt turns out well.
Jossie

Cheri said...

Brown is good for tree trunks and brownies. LOL
The block doesn't look as brown as you are seeing it. Hugs and prayers for your attitude on the family situation. Been there!