Stop and think....

I’ve been doing some pondering and meandering along with my stitching of late…lots of reasons, but I thought I’d share a little bit with all of you. Crazy quilting come with a myriad of AWESOME skills to explore and learn. Then there are the contests, round robins, swaps, dolls, charity donations, raoks and ALL of this is on top of work, family and other responsibilities. The list just goes on and on and its realllllllly tough to decide NOT to join in the fun isn’t it? Where do we draw the line between pushing ourselves a bit and providing something special for someone and over do?

I stitch to relax. I stitch to create. I stitch to share. When I stitch, a bit of “ME” becomes a part of whatever I am working on. I cannot seem to bring myself to just stitch to stitch. I may be slow, but I try my best to always produce work that someone will enjoy to have.

I recently read an article in a blog by a fellow cqer (and blogged a bit on this same topic myself) that mentioned her disappointment in the quality of the workmanship on and in round robin blocks and the lack of fore thought that is sometimes involved decorating them. She, like I, joins in these events, to see fresh ideas and techniques. This isn’t about the skill level of the stitcher. We all start some where. This is about rushing to complete something so we glue on a piece of ribbon to liken a flower or plop a button down and call it “good”. I would like to think that this is mostly due to the fact that we get caught up in too many events and all of a sudden can’t keep up. Life inserts itself in slippery ways and this is one area that gets easily sabotaged. Our personal time.

Where am I headed with this? Well, I would like to suggest that we simply stop and consider BEFORE we sign up for something. Do we really have the time? Do we really need to participate? Can we create a product that we would be proud to give and happy to recieve? Will our work make someone else happy when they see it up close? I would like to suggest that we all do our best to create something done to the very BEST of our abilities, rather than thrown together. Make sure that the seams will hold up to travel and not fray, creating an embellishing nightmare. Make sure you do your best with your stitching and what you put on the block. Make sure that you follow guidelines in swaps, to the best of your ability. I am truly not trying to preach. I am trying to help us ALL avoid disappointments in these wonderful events that we get involved in.

Written by Leslie, (CQI moderator)