Time Constraints & Awesome Fabric

I will admit that it's hard for me to not start new quilts. Really, really hard. I went to bed last night feeling itchy creative. And woke up this morning feeling the same. I sure would love to start a new project, cut into new fabric, and develop a fresh, new idea.

 

Unfortunately....

 

There's reality: Way too many quilts to finish. A pig sty of a studio. And a commitment to cut back.

 

I for sure would love to start another quilt. Sometimes being an artist means saying "screw it" to your ongoing projects, starting something new, and working late into the middle of the night when you have a thousand other things you have to finish.

 

But sometimes being an artist means saying no to yourself. Learning to hone creative ideas and choosing to start only the best ones, not every little idea that comes my way. Making sure I really am starting things that are worth finishing. Making sure I'm not wasting time and fabric on fancies, but delving into deeper, more significant projects.

 

Sure, sometimes it's good just to go for it. But I have to balance that out with my mothering responsibilities, my personal needs, taking care of the house, and the annoying fact that there are only 24 hours in every day and I have to sleep during some of those.

 

I don't have anything much else to say on that other than, sometimes achieving that balance sucks. It means saying no to myself. No to new projects. Yes to cleaning. Yes to dirty diapers. There's important things about the balance. But it's ok to admit that balance can be really hard to achieve because of the things we have to give up in order to reach it.

 

So instead of starting a new project just now, I'm going to show you a quick look at some awesome fabric and move on my merry way to regularly scheduled programming. I'll get to new ideas another day :)

 

 

There was a lot of eye candy on Instagram from Quilt Market this weekend, and I hope you were able to see a few peeks of my friend Heather's first fabric line!!

 

 

She gave me some smaller cuts to play with, and I made a pillow that was at her booth. You can see that here. I'll be sharing a tutorial for that sometime in the future. I felt very blessed to be a part of her fabric line launch!! It's been very exciting to see the various stages and emotions that she's been working through. I'm so happy for her!!

 

Her fabric line was inspired by succulents (obviously!) and this border print was especially adorable:

 

 

I really wanted to use it for the pillow back enclosure, but was just a little short. I can't wait to use more of it in the future! If you're interested in looking at more, check out her lookbook here.