Thursday, February 10, 2011

RELATING

So, my Mom's cousin's daughter's husband (I love tracing relationships this way...) had his father-in-law (my Mom's cousin; my first cousin, once removed...) help make this video for him for a college class.  I watched the video, even took notes.


Now how can I relate this to quilting...?   Hmmm. 


Paper-pieced Edelweiss

1)  Surrender to your passion. 
Be humble enough to realize the techniques developed over the years
may not be the best way to do something. 
Be patient so you can develop the talents and techniques
the proper way if you want to become a master at your craft.
2)  Practice. 
Instead of taking shortcuts or settling for less than your best work,
spend the time it takes to learn the proper techniques.
3)  Get a guide.  Learn from others. 
Read books.  Search the internet. Take a class.
4)  Visualize the outcome.  Dream big.
5)  Play the edge.  Try new things. 
Make things based on what you want to learn,
not what you already know. 
"Give in to the passion"....

Wow, this gives me some good answers to the times I hole up in the sewing room for hours, days, weeks until someone makes a comment about OCD tendencies and the fact that I need to come out to say hello or eat, or whatever...
"I am mastering my craft."
"I am giving in to my passion."

And in the past week, I have finally come up for air, after preparing/rewriting my Quilt School Lesson V:  Footsteps to Successful Paper Piecing.  I've had some good guides over the years: the school of Trial and Error, Jodi Warner, a SewExpo class in Puyallup, WA, and last summer, Norah McMeeking of Bella Bella quilt fame.  Add in a couple of cool tools, an acronym, and a lot of practice while making my girls do all the hard work, and voila!!  I think I am ready to teach at Salt Lake's Modern Quilt Guild next week, and at the Heber Valley Quilter's guild meeting next month.  PLUS!! I borrowed a daughter's camera and took pictures of every step so I even have a slideshow TUTORIAL, and you can find it HERE!!

"Sparky" the Unicorn, sewn by Chelsea Stott
Spellbinding Quilts by Maaike Bakker
And finally, here is an example of mastering my craft:  I placed, pinned, pressed, and my daughter sewed THIS adorable unicorn.  We both became masters of our craft by the end of the process.  "Mom, where's the seam ripper?" "I really should get one of those things..."
Happy sewing!  Now I'm off to continue mastering my craft...

http://gifgifs.com

2 comments:

  1. Did you design the unicorn? It's awesome. I love paper piecing and have dreams of making some cool designs some day!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, K! It's from a book called "Spellbinding Quilts" by Maaike Bakker. I love paper-piecing for all the perfect little tiny points. I'm a pointy quilter, I guess...

    ReplyDelete

So happy you stopped by for a visit! Thank you!