In any quilter’s life, there is a point where the quilt is not working.  You can zip along in your creative automobile at a fabulous pace, then it’s like someone reached over, turned off the engine and threw the keys out the window.  You drift, you steer, you try, but basically you’re just coasting to a dead stop.  Which is shown in the quilt above.

I’ve corralled my husband to have a quilt discussion with me (not his gig).  I’ve cut out zillions of red “flowers,” plopped them all over and had a discussion with myself about why it’s not working.  Some questions that have come up (especially late at night) are: Why do I have to do THEIR version of a border?  Why not just fly away on my own and finish off those fabulous crop circles in the middle in my own way?  Are those fabrics on the sides too bright? (Yes.) Where did I put those other flow fabrics? (Cue: searching bins in the garage.)  Will I have to buy more fabric?

In that way, this quilt reminds me of the one I did with Ruth McDowell some years ago.  I think I bought every yell0w-green fabric for miles around, trying one then another then another, trying to make them work.  I’m very happy with the end result, but that quilt took me AGES to complete–the pansy staring at me with its happy face, and me, making faces back at it, as I tried yet another yellow-green fabric around the edge.  It looks a little much here in this flat photo, but on the wall, it has a richness and pulls the viewer in.

It’s raining today, and I have to wait for a delivery, and my hand hurts (too much cooking on Valentine’s Day) and I have two more papers to grade (that came in late) and I need to prep my lesson for tomorrow, and still haven’t cleaned the bathrooms. Bleh.

I have a little book I read when I want to remind myself of getting back to the creating.  It’s called The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.  Usually I randomly open the book (short chapters) and read for a while to get me motivated and my head unfuddled.  Today’s random reading:

The professional arms himself with patience, not only to give the stars time to align in his career, but to keep himself rom flaming out in each individual work.  He knows that any job, whether it’s a novel or a kitchen remodel, takes twice as long as he thinks and costs twice as much.

Sigh.