Daily Notes- April 9th

Future patchwork.  When I go up to the Magic Attic these days I am scouting for "things that go with other things" in a magical way.  Three of these fabrics up top are from JoAnn's.  None were purchased on the same day.  None were purchased to go with each other.  Purposefully.  More likely the color combo was in my head.  Unconscious choices.  Synchronicity.  The far right dots--the Attic.  Took weeks for the Attic to cough them up.

Now that the TAXES are done-- I can focus on making a design choice.  Fabric is never the problem for me.  The design is where things go off the rails.  I have to have a plan.  Then I do the cutting and sewing in sort of "factory style".  Sew all these together.  Go away.  Come back sew these together.  Go away.  Come back and do sashing.  Go away.  Lay the parts together on the floor.  Go away.  Come back.  Look.  Move things around.  Go away.  Decide some of the fabrics are wrong. Start over.

I hope the four up top get along.  The two in the middle are from the same series.  Not always a good thing. And not very often the way I buy things.  Like I mentioned - purchased on two different shopping trips-unplanned.  I was in a gray and yellow mood.

The Morning Pages.  I am at the midway point in what I thought was a journal with way too many pages.  Not so many now.  My plan--at the end- is to burn the journal at a full moon.  Not read any of it.  I never read the pages I write on even as I am writing.  I don't worry about spelling or punctuation.  I just write words on the pages in lines that fill the pages from top to bottom. And my daughter saw me fan thru the pages and said--what beautiful handwriting.  The script is consistent thru all the weeks of daily pages.  Each page looks exactly like the others.  That says something about the practice and the almost automatic writing.

I now know have no intention of ever creating a masterwork painting or etching or piece of pottery.  I am not going to make quilts that sell.  I will make things.  Just for the joy of the process.  But I have no ambition.  I am also no longer competitive.  I think that was the principle that ruled me all these years--being competitive.  "I can do this better than any of you can do this".  I now accept that I do what I do and that's enough, and often it isn't as good as what you make.  I have no intention of making 100 pieces of anything in 100 days.  I couldn't even finish a puzzle in three weeks.