My Tennessee Waltz
1. 7/7 for evening pages. The pages habit is becoming compelling. Several times this past week I've had a feeling of looking forward--a longing--to get to my notes. I have recommended journaling to others because I believe in its benefits.
2. Again, no real artist's date, though I spent an entire day cooking on Super Bowl Sunday--something I enjoy but don't do much of any more. Because my days are already busy and traffic-burdened, I just don't feel inclined to haul out for a dedicated artist's date. I much prefer staying at home and cocooning. I don't think I'm resisting the artist date concept. I get a great deal of renewal just pottering about the house, since I don't get much chance during the week. As some of you are aware from my postings in our blogs and the About.com quilters' forum, I'm thinking I'd rather spend my artist's date exploring creative paths other quilters have taken.
As for planning an entire day-artist's date, the obvious choice would be a class. But I suggested to my husband that we drive up to Paducah (it's only 150 miles from us). He wouldn't be interested in the AQS museum and certainly not Hancock's of Paducah, but the idea appealed to him because Paducah is just a few (fewer than 10, I think) miles from Metropolis, IL, where there's a Harrah's casino. (Ugh.) So he could spend the day at the blackjack tables, sqaundering money, while I squander it at Hancock's--maybe even spend the night. He's acting housebound lately, so maybe it would be a change-of-scenery outing we could both enjoy.
3. Synchronicity was strange last week.
* I suggested the above trip on Saturday and the Sunday travel section of our local paper was about gambling venues in the Nashville area!
* Being a retired interior designer, it falls to me to take care of building appearance at the law firm where I work. It's a Victorian house on Music Row, so it's not exactly institutional in ambiance. Over the years I've selected paint, carpeting, and upholstery. The latest item was a coffee table for the reception area. After months of unsuccessful searching, we decided on Friday to commission an artist client to paint an unfinished table for us. That very day I stopped at TJ Maxx on my way home (it's waaaayy too close to my house) on a routine reconnaisance run. As I approached the exit, empty-handed, there it was: a wonderful table, perfect to our needs. I slept on it (the decision--not the table), went back the next morning to purchase, it was delivered on Sunday, and ooohhed and ahhhhed over on Monday. Perfect. Strange timing, I thought, since that very day we had officially called off the hunt.
* Pat and Rian discuss inertia, and others mention fear of success/fear of failure as blocks. But I think about Rian's earlier mention of "cogitating." I think if it's just not coming, you need not act. Maybe that block (or so you think of it) isn't a block at all, but a sense that it isn't ripe yet. My "Tennessee Waltz" was giving me fits last week. I thought I'd done all my math properly so was dismayed to realize my planned 3"-block strip-pieced border wasn't going to work out right. The unfinished top lay on the living room floor all week, steel tape measure stretched edge to edge, putting the lie to my great plan. Each day I checked the tape, thinking the quilt might have grown or shrunk during the night, frustrated beyond description. For days I scribbled and sketched, added, subtracted and divided, and nothing worked. I had reached an impasse and decided to bag the plan--I did nothing. As I rolled into bed Thursday or Friday night, having finished my evening notes, out of the blue the solution hit me! I rolled right OUT of bed and recalculated and understood what I'd been doing wrong. So you call it: block or incubation? (With a little help from our friend Synchronicity?)
4. Another significant issue for me last week was implementing in a small way my desire to assist a fellow artist, my 8-year-old niece. After reading about Mary Engelbreit's encouragement from her mother, I went to Costco and bought the taboret I want Zan to have, because she's in the process of creating her own artist's nook in her bedroom. I wrote her a letter of encouragement to go with the gift. I want to be mindful of opportunities to encourage others as well.
11 comments:
Good for you on those evening pages! Ya know, that might be the ticket--mornings just don't have the same take-stock and meditate flavor that bedtime does. I'm rarin' to go in the morning, but evenings I can be still just "be."
Congrats on the syncronicitous table. My new house hasn't magically dropped out of the sky yet, but it's only a matter of time.
I think an overnight to Paducah sounds like a real fun time.
Rian, how funny. Synchronicious is DELICIOUS! I swear, you need to stop thinking about a house and one will appear!
I think what happened with your Tennessee Waltz is what Julia is describing in week 12 in the section on Mystery - "Hatching an idea is a lot like baking bread .... A loaf of bread ... must stay for a good long time in the darkness ... of the oven." Amazing how when its ready, the idea pops out!
Suze, when I read Chapter 12 on Sunday night, I was struck by how my Week 11 kind of dovetailed with her Week 12. I thought the same thing as you when I read the passage.
"I think if it's just not coming, you need not act" - Well said! But, I'm curious, what was the solution for the uncooperative Tennessee Waltz? You just never know what you'll find at T J Maxx. It is a weakness of mine.
You're going to make me publicly declare my stupidity? To make a dull story short, I essentially wasn't doing my math right. One problem was that I hadn't realized a 3" border of alternating blocks requires that the center piece finish, length and width, in numbers divisible by 3 an ODD number of times, or else the alternating blocks will duplicate at the corners. I just needed to twist my thinking a little, remove the inner border and adjust its size. I'm so glad I didn't tear into it or eliminate my pieced border plan before understanding what was wrong.
If you can't get your husband motivated and you're up for a road trip by yourself, I'm going home in June for my brother's oldest daughter's wedding - maybe 100-150 miles from Paducah also, but in a different direction. I've never been to the AQS Museum either and I almost always try to make a trip to Paducah to Hancock's when I'm home. The only tricky part is my trip this time is sort of strangely timed. I'm going to Southern Illinois on a Wed., flying back home on the following Wed. - the wedding is the day before Father's Day. If there was anyway we could meet in Paducah for a tour of the museum, I'd love to meet you!
Pat, color me tickled pink at the idea of hooking up in Paducah! I don't think DH (or I, for that matter) want to wait that long for an excursion. But even if we make the trip ourselves in a couple of weeks, I'd still like to try to see you. Sounds like it would be tricky to work out, though.
It could be, normally when I go back to Southern Illinois to visit my trip encompasses 2 weekends. But since Kristen's wedding is on Saturday night before Father's day, I didn't want to come in on Saturday -- too much going on - and then I thought I could come the weekend before the wedding, until I realized that I would then be flying home on Father's Day - and since my Mom passed away last spring, I didn't want to leave on Father's day. So I wound up with this goofy Wed. to Wed. schedule. If it doesn't work out this time, we can try again on my next trip home.
Love that cute taboret, your niece will be ecstatic! It is the perfect solution for lots of "artistic" storage in a small space.
Congrats on finding that perfect table. The quilt looks pretty nice too :) I am usually a little intimidated by quilts requiring math, so I bought EQ5 hoping it would help. Jen
I hear my niece is pushing her art cart all over the house, depending on where she feels like being creative at the moment!
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