Since writing my Perspective post a few weeks ago (in which I lamented among other things, a total lack of sewing energy/time) I have done very little sewing. It's taken time to want to sew again, more than I expected, but school went back today, and to distract myself from my youngest starting school, I decided to do a bit of sewing. And it felt GOOD. I'm so relieved to have my motivation and passion back at last, and I have a whole pile of things I want to make right now - so things are very much back to normal. I'm a happy little quilter :o)
Having said that, I'm not so delighted with what I put together today. I don't hate it, but I really don't love it - 'meh' is seriously the best description for how I'm feeling right now. I've been completely fascinated with Storm at Sea quilts and blocks since I started quilting, and a Storm at Sea quilt is the next project I want to embark on. This mini quilt doubled as a test run for my planned larger version (although this uses a totally different palette), and as a class sample for a Storm at Sea class I'll be teaching this year at Frangipani Fabrics.
For this version, I was playing with a gradation in colour from yellow through to green to see how effective it would be in this block. I think it kind of works, but could be improved on (using fabric with little/no white for example - those blocks jump out too much to my eye, and also a smoother transition would work better I think). The other thing that makes me a bit ambivalent about it is that it screams 'Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oy Oy Oy' to me - as Jodi so rightly pointed out on Instagram today, green and gold together evoke certain feelings in Australians. For me, they're not always good feelings.
I'm hoping that once it's quilted I'll like it more - but regardless it has been a valuable learning experience and hasn't put me off making a big version, which is a wee bit surprising. I swore I would never make another completely paper pieced quilt again after making Roundabout midway through 2013. But now I think making a completely paper pieced quilt is a bit like childbirth - you forget the pain after a while and want to do it all over again ;o).
I'm off to start ripping paper out of the back of this so I can quilt it and see if that helps me love it more. I know I'm not alone in making things that are 'meh', but what do you do in this situation? Dump it and work on something you do love, or persist and see if you can grow to love it? I need advice peeps!
xx Jess
