Back in the saddle

Quilting has been on a back burner for me for awhile.  I can't explain the reasons, because I'm not sure, myself.  It's not that I don't have many projects running around in my head, or UFOs ALL OVER my studio, or tops waiting for my longarm--which has been sitting idle for too long now.  Perhaps it's just been a lack of energy overall lately.

(Here's a photo of some of the stacks of tops waiting to meet my longarm.  They take less room as tops than as finished quilts!  That's my story.  Can we call these AFOs--Almost Finished Objects?)

But I'm happy to say that my quilting friends have gotten me back on track. Sewing with friends has re-energized me, and remindws me that our mothers, grandmothers, great grandmothers, and further back got together regularly for "bees;"  they were social occasions for them, but I think they must have also been energizing and inspiring for them.  There's just something about sharing that quilting and sewing experience.  We still do that today, with guilds and small groups, and certainly with the online social gatherings available to us.   In fact, one of my spinning/knitting tweeps can claim some credit for this re-energzing for quilting, though she isn't a quilter.   She reminded me why I most love quilting--why I MUST do it--because it's creative and, most of all, comforting to myself and (hopefully) to those to whom they are gifted.

So, I will still be learning new things, enjoying new arts/crafts, and finding some comfort and peace in them, but quilting is still a part of the heart of me.   I don't think I could get away from it, even if I wanted to.  I'll be reporting here on all things fiber in my life--quilting, spinning, weaving, knitting, crocheting, and whatever else I might take up.

Now, down to pull 16 yards of fabric for quilt backings out of the dryer...