Begin Again

I was sitting in my folk's beautiful living room a couple weeks ago with two of my awesome nieces. They were fooling around on the other couch, I think they like the slipperiness of the leather. This is the only picture I could get without their feet being in it. As I sat there listening to their giggling I was struck again by how much I love these quilts that I made for this room, (and more importantly of course, for my parents.) They suit the space so well and they turned out just how I'd imagined and sketched them.

I can remember cutting out the strips for them as my husband and I talked to an old friend of ours who was visiting us for the day. He was a surprise visitor and I already had the project underway and had a looming deadline for the quilts that was coming up so as we all chatted I steadily went through box after box selecting and cutting. He had all sorts of questions about how I was making decisions about which fabrics to use. It was hard to explain my process to someone who is an engineer and not an artist, but I managed well enough.

As I sat there, I started wondering if I could make these quilts again if I had to. My answer to myself was that I honestly don't know. I'm in a much different place physically and mentally. but I can viscerally recall how I made them, I can remember the process and the mindset I was in at the time, but I'm really really rusty at this whole 'making thing.' Years have gone by now where I haven't made all that much of anything. I'm out of practice, that's what it comes down to.

Turns out that whole thing about creativity being a muscle is completely true. And boy howdy am I ever out of shape! To fully recover from these last years of non-production I have to restart that practice engine that I was regularly feeding. That's part of why I'm blogging again, trying to recapture the momentum and focus I've lost. Here's hoping that it works!

Everything present is included in the past somewhere; nobody's present pops out of nowhere. ~ Twyla Tharp