{Quilting 101} Slow Down! Create with Intention

The world feels so chaotic and fast sometimes, but our hobbies hold space for us to be still and to breathe. Make 2023 the year you slow down and embrace the joy of creating! 

Ask anyone how they are going, and they'll respond with how busy they are - there's an epidemic of hustle culture and it's robbing us everything that makes life wonderful.

We go from task to task on auto pilot and our self-worth is defined by our productivity and how many likes our social media posts receive. Our cupboards hold gadgets that do the work for us, and if we can find a quicker way to do something or someone who can do it for us, we do!   

For many, quilting (or any craft for that matter) is a hobby, and a hobby should be something we pursue for leisure and enjoyment, yet we churn out projects at such a fast pace we hardly have time to breathe.

This year I urge you to slow down and create one project with intention - one project with no time frame or expectations, one project that intentionally makes you slow down!

Create with intention:

Being intentional with our time allows us to filter out the noise and pursue what's important to us. It allows us to savor the slow process and steady rhythm of our craft and explore who we are as a creative.

It's intentionally making time for what lights us up and keeping us present in the moment, listening to the lessons every project teaches us and watching our skills develop.

It reconnects us with methods our grandma's practiced or challenges us to tackle projects out of our comfort zone. 

Creating feeds the soul and intentionally slowing down allows you to embrace every step of the process, even the ones you that don't normally light you up - like basting ;)

Finding your why:

To create intentionally you need to find your why! 

Maybe hand sewing a project allows you to spend more time with the family instead of being tucked away in your sewing room alone - maybe the opposite is true! A sampler quilt might help you learn new skills and connect with the history of the blocks and the quilters who sewed them before you. Maybe you want to enter a quilt show or learn to dye your own fabrics. Your why is unique to you!

The long-term project I chose for 2023 is a celebration of Bonnie and Camille fabrics I've used throughout my quilting journey. I'm diving deep into the scrap boxes and giving these older fabrics a new forever home. These scrap bins are full of memories, and I've loved working with these fabrics again - I'll share more on this project later in the week.

Whatever your why is, being intentional will increase your focus, strengthen your commitment and create an emotional investment in your project.

Patience is a virtue:

Colouring with my mum was my favorite thing to do as a child. It was our special one on one time and I thought she was the greatest colourer (is that even a word?) of all time. While I was scrawling scratchy lines in each section at lightning speed, she was patiently staining the page with colour, building light and shade to bring our picture to life.

She taught me to slow down and work on each section with a delicate touch, teaching me how light hit the page, how colours coexisted and how to focus on one area at a time and not the full picture.

When I feel I'm rushing a project or I'm losing commitment and cutting corners, I think back to these colouring sessions with mum and remember to practice patience, slow down and enjoy every step of the process. 

Quilting, just like colouring, is not a race and there's no prize for who makes the most quilts! ;)

Creativity is an escape:

My husband has a model railroad and the joy he finds in this hobby can be seen in the detail. You step into this miniature world where someone's fishing in a secluded river, the crops are growing in a market garden, someone's pumping petrol and there's a guy sweeping debris from a work site. 

This is his way of destressing after a sixty-hour work week. Progress is very slow but the last thing he needs is more pressure to perform or time frames to work towards. This hobby is such a contrast to his work life. Here he can be creative, work with his hands and bring his imagination to life, and he loves every single minute of it! 

We're not machines, and without restrictions or expectations we reclaim the joy of creating and savor the process. 

Creativity is an escape from the hustle and bustle of life, and when you're in the flow, time becomes irrelevant because you're in the present moment. Calm the mind (the to do lists will wait) and create something beautiful.

Just like Grandma:

We're blessed to have gadgets and fabrics to create whatever we want, but grandma only needed a needle, thread, scissors and a bag of scraps to sew something wonderful. 

She lived in a time where a sewing machine was a luxury and quilting by hand created a sense of beauty and pride. Her work was done out of love, and it included hours of old-fashioned eye straining labour, while her fabrics were scraps from clothing and other household items.

Quilting was a necessity for grandma, but she poured love and care into every seam, and her talents were awe inspiring. Be just like grandma and fall in love with your craft all over again!

A long-term project for 2023:

I encourage you to choose one long-term project for 2023 and be intentional when you create, be present - let your creativity flow without all the noise! 

We dismiss projects because they're labour intensive or we think we don't have the time, but this long-term project can span over as many months or years as you need - no time frames, no expectations!

Here's a few ideas to help you slow down and create with intention:

• Hand sew a quilt from start to finish.
• Hand quilt a machine pieced quilt.
• Sew a sampler like a Dear Jane Quilt.
• Dye your own fabrics and experiment with colours.
• Design your own quilt.
• Try English Paper Piecing.
• Sew a Scrappy Postage Stamp Quilt - my long-term project choice for 2023.
• Machine quilt with your own custom quilting designs.
• Make an applique quilt.
• Design and hand quilt a whole cloth quilt.

However you choose to slow down and create this year, remember to enjoy every step of your quilting journey. Seek joy, contentment and satisfaction in all you do.

Creative people feel it in their soul. They crave creating what doesn't yet exist, and they're passionate, tenacious, courageous and inventive - slow down and embrace your craft!

I hope I've inspired you to choose a long-term project for 2023! When the world feels like its spinning too fast, or your feeling overwhelmed with commitments and responsibilities you can reach for your project and find joy and serenity as you stitch the seams together.

The world will slow down, and you can finally breathe!

PIN FOR LATER:

Happy quilting :)