turning*turning

Special thanks

The photo above (and those that follow) shows a wonderful mini-quilt made for me by Victoria of Bumblebeans. She wanted to swap for the collage that I made last week and I’m only too happy to send it to her! The quilt she made says my name, MAL, and she used it to practice her machine quilting skills. Looks great to me, lady! Thanks for your generosity!

I can’t wait to hang it on the walls outside my bedroom, where I’m hanging other mini-quilts.

What I worked on this week

Welcome to my slowest blogging week yet! Situations at work and with my family have eaten up most of my brainpower this week, and I am behind not only on blog writing but also blog reading. I’ve canceled all of my plans for tonight, though, and will be catching up on both reading and writing. It’s good for my mental health, and after a week like I’ve had, I’m particularly interested in what we, in The Biz, call “self care.”

5 comments you should read

Of course, You All haven’t taken a break from contributing excellent and thought-provoking comments and I’m so glad to be able to highlight some of them. Be sure to always check and see what your fellow readers are saying!

Naturally, there were many great answers to the question, “How do you make time for making?” that I asked on my giveaway post. I will highlight those in the coming week when I announce the winner of the mini-quilt.  But, here’s a quickie that I liked because of the use of the word “touching” as a way to keep in contact with our projects.

Sometimes I get up earlier than the usual rising time and ‘touch fabric’ before work, do even 10 or 15 minutes of sewing or cutting for a quilt. That way I have a physical memory of the project during the day and it helps me want to get back to it. Or I might take the current project to work and put in a few stitches during morning break and/or lunch. It helps keep the connection with the project so it doesn’t fall to the side in the rush of days.

I like an uninterrupted hour or two to go in and sew, but how often does that happen?

Leslie (no blog)

In the meantime, here are a few comments on other entries — like last week’s entry about setting priorities.

yes! you have articulated all those thoughts in my head as i try to ask and challenge those around me who believe they HAVE to do the things they do no matter how stressful. i was always searching for the right word to use and you have done it, PRIORITIES, exactly. i stand by my priorities even in the face of friends, family, classmates and strangers…those who don’t quite grasp my ways and the whys of how my husband and i live. we like it simple but we’re far from it. the best thing to do is to be truthful and as actualized as we can be. PRIORITIES…i like that word. thank you!

jekinthebox (Jessica) from Scrumdillydilly

Some people really related to my post about the psychological and “art therapy” stuff going on behind my current hexagon quilt craze. I loved to read about other people’s phases and the kinds of metaphors and meanings that might develop in our subconscious and surface in our making.

My undergraduate studies were in photography. I was constantly drawn to doorways. I look back now (almost 20 years later) at photos taken during college and many many of them were of doorways. I used to have a recurring dream of walking through a house and in each room there was a door. I’d open the door and there would be another room with a door. It wasn’t a scary dream – just compelling. I was compelled to open the doors. In the photos I would often frame something I was looking at by viewing it through the doorway. Self portraits were taken in the door frame or from one side looking at the other. I’m still trying to understand these metaphors. I have some thoughts and I’m not sure I’ll ever be certain, but I know there’s something there…

Amy of A Commonplace Life

i think it’s very interesting to ponder and come to a realization about why we’re doing the things we’re doing. and even more interesting that we do them somehow automatically for quite awhile before that realization strikes. i’ve thought about it quite a bit with my late winter/early spring eyeball obsession, where i slowly came to the realization that it was about seeing and focusing on seeing and thereby being more present in my life right here and now. that it was related to growing as a photographer and the vision looking through the lens of the camera lends. that what seemed wacky and a little off was actually a personally profound thing for me.it sounds like you have had the same experience with your hexagons. isn’t it wonderful?

Julie from Julochka

This is very interesting. Very often I have a feeling at the back of my mind when I’m writing or making things that there is a very specific reason why I’m doing what I’m doing. Lately, I’ve started to listen to it, and certain family issues that I thought I’ve been unaffected by are starting to appear in my thinking. I can’t quite put it into words yet, but I hope to be able to someday.

B from Cuttings on a Blog

Good reads around Blogland

• Weeks from Craft Nectar wrote about an amazing journey of adoption, and shares with us a quilt that she made to represent the feelings and emotions behind it. I love this kind of essay — and Weeks was kind enough to give me a heads up that she’d be posting it. So lovely. (I also loved reading about her family sketching outing. Wish more families did this!)
• From Unclutterer, a well-timed piece called Recovering from a Productivity Plunge.
• Concha of Saidos da Concha shows us her swatch book. Great idea!
• Christopher Peterson, one of the bloggers at Psychology Today, reviewed a book by Daniel Coyle called The Talent Code. I’ve added it to my list of books for review, because in part it seems to talk about a phenomenon that I feel is being fostered here on the blog — groups of like-minded people who can challenge and push each other toward greatness.
• Leo of Zen Habits writes about something familiar to our recent discussions here — that the best way to change your life is to make small, consistent changes. Hmm. Sound familiar?

1. Purpose, re-purpose