Tiny Voices and More Tiny Beads

I have been remiss in posting, mostly because I have been working. Here is the update.

January’s journal quilt is nearly done. All the paint is dry and I just need to finish up some of the hand stitching with the pretty floss colors that I found. This one was tedious but not too difficult. It has shaped up pretty much the way I thought it would. I am pleased.

February. Ah, February. For such a simple design it hasn’t been simple at all. One of the design elements that looked perfectly fine on paper, looked clunky in the actual execution. What I was seeing in my minds eye was much more delicate, but I couldn’t make it work and so I ended up engaged in some mindless activity. More about that in a minute.

With about a half a dozen false starts and some time NOT thinking about it, the problem finally resolved itself with some black rat-tail, a ton of tiny gold beads and a marathon handwork session. After the beading session with the gold leaf leaves, this was not something I wanted to do. Yet, I have to admit that I like the end results. Yep, this one is done. Now all that is left is to get a label attached and pull the paperwork together so I can make my submission deadline.

There always seems to be one or two projects that just don’t come together the way I see them. Quite some time ago, I had this great idea about working with some fall colors and the shape of a leaf. It was going to be great! It was horrible!!! An abomination! I felt a compelling need to throw the nasty mess in the trash where it belonged. But a tiny voice stayed my hand and it was tossed irreverently in the corner along with some snide comment about just having to toss it in the garbage when I came across it in six months time.

Fast forward to June of last year. I was digging around for something when a corner of the abomination happened to catch my eye. The portion sticking out of the pile was intriguing. Before I really knew what I was doing I had yanked it out of the pile and ran from the room with this thing flapping behind me like Superman’s cape. Suddenly, my rotary cutter was in my hand and I had hacked off the piece that was to become my June journal quilt.

The abomination now with a gaping hole, was destined for the great landfill in the sky. The tiny voice said “no”.

“What?” All right I had listened once and now something kind of cool had come of it, but now there was no reason not to put the thing in the trash. I was resolute, but the tiny voice would not be swayed and back into the pile it went. So why am I telling this story? Remember that mindless activity?

There is still a largish piece left. This time I didn’t argue about keeping it.

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.--Scott Adams