Tag Archives: quilt

UFO #3 – Learning to be quiet

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I am finding, despite what I believed when I was younger, that I enjoy solitude.  I really enjoy my quiet time. I find that when I use that alone time, I am able to think and create.  Now that the snow has started to fly in Minnesota, I find fewer and fewer errands that I wish to do.  So as you will see, I have decided to just spend my home days crafting. 

No, I did not get a free genie who does all the housecleaning, laundry, animal care, meal planning,  . . . I think you get the idea.  What I did get was a change of attitude.  I am giving myself reason (excuse, permission, etc) to slow down.  There are days that I feel like I do nothing but run from one activity to another.  Making this commitment to completing UFO’s is becoming two-fold.  It is a reason to save money (by not buying entertainment – craft supplis) and to force me to slow down. 

I must come by it naturally, because my Mama Cloie always says, she “needs something to keep her hands busy to keep her mind energized.”  But instead of keeping my mind busy, I am able to slow my racing thoughts.  Instead of always trying to keep up, I am just present – in that moment. 

It seems to me there is too much noise and distraction in our world.  If I am right in that assumption, then how will I ever “hear” God.  As a gardener, it is easy to hear God in the spring and summer.  He is in the cricket’s chirp and the whisper in the wind as well as in the plink of the raindrops. With all the technological gadgets that I have in my household combined with my self-confined “hermit tendencies”, it is easy to forget God’s command to “Be still and KNOW.” 

These last few days, I have been able to use my hands to keep my mind “still”.  If someone pops into my mind, I pause and pray for them. God seems to pop a lot of “someones” pop into my mind. I find that I spend less time worrying, and it is so much easier to hand those worries over.  I truly am at a peace.  I also think that God knows my strong desire to not be running all the time, and so, He has used this resurgence of crafting to quiet me. 

Even though to the human eye it might appear that it is just me (and Huck) quietly crafting, I know that there is He is there.  And just like any proud papa, He is proud that I am choosing to spend time with Him.

Zephaniah 3:17 The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.

 

 

UFO #3 is once again made with scraps from Erin’s quilt.  I am almost completely out of those.  It is a rag quilt (sewn with seams exposed).  It becomes more ragged with each washing.  While it wasn’t exactly 64 like squares in the quilt, there were a whole lot of “someone’s” prayed over during the making of this quilt. 

 

 

UFO’s – January

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My whole life I have marvelled at space and all it has to offer.  One of my favorite television shows as a kid was Lost in Space. The thoughts of space travel had me mesmerized. But the kind of UFO that I will be writing about today is not the kind that will have me travelling into space.  Rather it is one that will help me clean up my space. 

I hate to come out here and confess what I am going to confess.  But I figure the best way to stop doing this to myself is to put it out there and hold myself accountable (through all of you).  I am a crafts-nut.  I have enough projects to keep me busy until the day I die.  Fortunately, I love creating things, and my creative interests appear to have no boundaries.  I have beading projects, quilts, cross-stitch, knitting, stamping, scrapbooking and a sundry of supplies.  The problem is that I have started projects and not finished them. Additionally, I will buy supplies when I read about a great project or I come across a great deal.  I have a closet full of fabric waiting to be sewn, skeins of yarn waiting to be knitted into scarves and mittens, and scrapbooks that lay with blank pages. Right here is where Robot would say, “Danger! Will Robinson! Danger!”  (Hence, UFO  in this case means UnFinished Object.)

At the heart  of this confession is the fact that I am not being a good steward of the money God gave me nor have I been realistic about the time that I have to do such projects.  I have been pulled away by doctoring, general busy-ness, kids activities, volunteering, and work commitments.  I am planning to change my ways (and save money) by finishing the projects I have started and by abstaining from purchasing new materials and supplies (if not needed to finish a current project).

So my first UFO is to finish a baby quilt (that is simply meant to be a gift to some future baby girl).  This quilt has a little history in that it is made of scraps from Erin’s bedroom quilt, and some lovely little girls at Faith’s Lodge (www.faithslodge.org) helped me piece it.  We all sat on the wonderful 3 season porch at the Lodge and we worked.  While we did it, we shared about sons and brothers that left us much too soon and about how much we missed them.  Even though it was only a handful of us at a time, looking back, we shared in what women throughout time have done.  We used our hands to create something beautiful, while we laughed and cried and used that time to soothe our souls.  Hopefully the love shared in that room will be passed on to the recipient of that blanket some day. 

Thinking about it like that, there is probably a history and a memory associated with each UFO I have to complete. Maybe that’s what I have been searching for with each purpose, the joy of making memories.  Right now, I am going to choose to travel this year down memory lane rather than seeking new and more thrilling adventures in the world of crafting.  I want to finish the quilts my Mama Cloie started.  I want to knit the yarn that was given to me by my best friend’s (and my adopted) mom.  I want to scrapbook those pictures (even if it is difficult memories of pictures with Reed). I am guessing that God will bless each project because I am choosing to recognize that my spending hasn’t been wise in the past, and that I am definitely a work in progress myself. 

If you see me longingly eyeing the supplies at the crafts stores, remind me of how I am God’s handicraft in progress.  That will certainly do the trick. 

In the meantime, if you are a crafter, happy crafting during these winter days when we want to stay home and stay in.  (And yes, I will post pictures along the way.)