I am in a hard place in my life at the moment where I sincerely dislike the work that I am doing. I don’t dislike the skills I have or what it takes to do the work. I don’t dislike the profession or the people in the profession. I am simply astonishingly bored by going into the office and doing the same work day after day. While I struggle through the process of figuring out what to do next, creativity is incredibly important. I have found it difficult to inject much creativity into my life recently as I race around from one task or obligation to the next. I find it difficult when I can’t get to my machine or when I am too tired to be inspired. I have been struggling with visual journaling and trying to squeeze some hand piecing into the spare moments. Nothing is perfect in the creativity department.

As a result, I have, once again, turned back to quilting podcasts. They are a perfect fit at this point in time and space. I can listen in the car, on the train, at the doctor or at swimming.

I have been listening to one podcast for a long time and recently switched to Annie Smith’s Quilt Stash podcast. I immediately felt a great sense of relief and calm. Annie has a wonderful voice and she speaks intelligently. The other podcast host[ess] used some strange grammar, weird words and odd idioms. It began to get on my nerves.

Tonight I listened to podcast #119, a visit with Diane Gaudynski. I always had a bit of a chip on my shoulder about DG for no good reason except jealousy. Bad, Artquiltmaker! Now I am in love with Diane Gaudynski. The interview was so warm and friendly and Diane gave some wonderful tips in a warm and effortless way. I immediately put her book on my Amazon wishlist.

As a result I am back on the quiltmaking podcasts as a way to get some creativity into my life. Try out Annie Smith’s podcasts.