I am back to work on a commission from the spring. How great it feels to wrestle with all the challenges that attend improv quilting rather than the challenges associated with not working at all!!

The sewing challenges presented by improv quilting include — lumps where different weight fabrics meet, lumps where a necessary re-fragmentation of a pieced section renders a formerly bigger patchwork piece into a very tiny postage stamp-sized piece which is butted up against a new seam; the imbalance of motif or color that occurs when rearranging large pieced sections;  the sorry loss of a quarter inch of a beloved fabric chunk… like this little fishy’s nose.

I consider the satisfaction of designing-as-I go well worth the lumps and bumps.

Thank you readers, who offered so much encouragement and insight to me recently after a particularly gloomy post. It surprises me when taking the risk of sounding like a whiny baby proves so worthwhile. Thank you.

I particularly took to heart two things — one, that trust is important here, and two, that stepping into the river of creativity is more important than the style of one’s waders — in other words, when time is tight perhaps a medium that lends itself to quicker results might be the ticket. Or, in the alternative, now that I have a paycheck, perhaps I don’t mind making fewer quilts a year.

Thank you again.