Sometimes Finished Is Enough.

Its hard to believe it's the end of February 2015 already! Symposium has been and gone, the Club year has started, and the kids are back at school. My youngest child has started College, my eldest is working fulltime, it's a whole new phase of life.

Symposium was inspiring, as such shows usually are. And despite working in the merchant mall I managed to squeeze in a 2 day class - Anna Williams "Celtic Rows". It was a great class and I'm so glad I did it. Anna is a lovely teacher with a great sense of humour. I learned some very cool techniques, had a lot of fun, and best of all, found my Mojo! Exactly what it was doing hiding in a Classroom in Palmerston North girl's High I do not know, but there it was.

The class was held on the last two days of Symposium.It had been a very long, hot and tiring week and I wasn't feeling particularly well. Pulling out of the class wasn't an option, not after working so hard and paying so much money.  So I planned to go along and pick the easiest pattern and not put any pressure on myself to perform or finish something amazing.  As I said, I thoroughly enjoyed the class, learning some very cool techniques, meeting some lovely people, and most of all, discovering that sometimes just participating is enough.  I didn't have the most complicated pattern or the most striking colours (and yes, I realise that it is only me putting that pressure on myself), but I did accomplish a reasonable amount, that I enjoyed doing and that I was looking forward to finishing at home.  It really cemented the idea that sometimes just being finished IS enough, and it doesn't have to be the best to be a success.

"Celtic Rows" - a class by Anna Williams at Quilt Symposium Manawatu 2015

Postscript:
I wrote this post back in February, and not really sure why I never hit 'publish', probably because I was waiting for a photo to load.  But after finding the draft it reminded me of the lessons I learned in that two day class, and how it felt, so I decided to post it even if it's out of order.  One of my biggest faults (and I have a few!) is that self-imposed pressure to be perfect.  As I get older it may be easing a bit - or perhaps it's just that my eyesight is going! ;-)

My Mojo is Returning!

Surely it can't be July already!

My blogging skills may be slack, but my quilting mojo is returning slowly but surely.  Maybe my blogging will follow.

As some of you know, handwork is my first passion/obsession, but due to ongoing issues with my right shoulder (and of course I'm right handed) I've been avoiding my needleturn applique.  I had just two borders left to do on my Civil War Bride replica, but even that seemed too much.  Some intense physio, some borrowed drugs, and the acquisition of a TENS machine has seen my shoulder if not fixed, at least stable enough to not be a constant fiery ball of pain. And so I dragged out my borders and set to finishing.  If I had none how little time it would take to finish I would never have stopped!

And now it's done!  I'm not going to show you the completed top, just in case it disqualifies it from entering a show or exhibition in the future.  But will tease you with just a corner....

This was a Block of the Month run by Village Fabrics and Needlecraft in Tauranga, the pattern created by Corliss Searcey of Threadbear.  The original had no sashing, and was done on a cream/tan background.  While the original looked great, I wanted to put my own touches in it so chose a pale/sky blue background, and used my own fabrics for the applique.  After seeing a finished version on the internet with sashing, I decided to add that as well, liking the definition it gave to each block rather than all of them running together.

Now to think about quilting it!  Hand quilting has always been on my "list of things to do".  With my love of handwork, it seems like a natural progression and as this was all done by hand (bar putting the blocks together with sashing of course), it lends itself perfectly to hand quilting I think.  So rather than starting another applique quilt, I'm learning to hand quilt.  Nothing like starting big!  A lot of searching on YouTube and the internet, a quick lesson from a friend, and it's all cemented in my head.  Now to make my hands and fingers match the pictures in my mind!  I plan to practice for a while, then will be sending this top to a machine quilter to baste so it's nice and stable and ready to be picked up and put down a lot while it gets hand quilted.

So far, I'm enjoying the hand quilting, as I suspected I would, although I'm having to keep telling myself I'm learning and not to get too frustrated with the long or uneven stitches!  Going from being advanced with a needle to a beginner has been hard on my ego!