Getting Back in the Groove

I keep hearing talk about ‘getting your Sew-jo back’. At the moment I have plenty of sew-jo, but there have been times where I have not had any inspiration or motivation. I wanted  to sew, but somehow couldn’t.

At various times, I have talked about this. Once was when I was contemplating creativity. 2006 was a year of challenging sew-jo. There are other posts about getting back in the groove. I should make a tag for those.

Thoughts on Dots
Thoughts on Dots

There are a couple of quilts I have made specifically to get  me out of a slump. One was Thoughts on Dots. It came to mind over the weekend, because the YM dragged it out to sleep with. It was on the cold side this weekend and his room has a lot of windows.

This quilt is painful to read about. I was definitely struggling with my process and you lovely people got to read about every minute shift in my thinking. The point about this quilt is that it is plain squares that I rearranged and rearranged until it seemed done. It got me back in the groove.

Lesson: cut squares and rearrange them.

Playmat
Playmat

Much earlier than Thoughts on Dots was a little Playmat I made for the YM when he was a baby. According to the information I have, I made this quilt in 1997. I remember making it envelope style. No binding.

I don’t remember why it is all on the bias, but you can tell I was making improv quilts even then. These were scraps of fabric. The lobsters were kitchen curtains we had when the YM was born. The scribbly fabric was purchased in a basement shop downtown on my lunch hour. I am sure that shop is long gone, but I remember the thrill.

I don’t know about the different styles I have employed to get me back in the groove, but here are two of the resulting quilts.