Who can say what strange things cause a burst of creativity!?? For me, it's been a long dry spell...waiting for something to happen, waiting for that muse of ...something...to break in and set me to work.I keep inspiring notes on my board...
I have evidence of other people's creativity to spur me on...
Nothing like heroes of the Zombie Apocalypse to generate excitement and fervor (especially if the Xena-like warrior is your own daughter! Go Emily!!! lol)!!
But nothing much has worked until this week.
I took a mad risk.
I've known for a while that I can't function in chaos. And my Sewing Room/Mary Kay office has been a testimony to a cluttered mind for some time. Piles of this and that....paperwork and inventory and unfinished projects, and projects that need to be finished because of deadlines and LAST year's deadlines unmet...
No wonder I haven't been sewing!!
This past week, though, I did something I'd been threatening for a while.
I had a YARD SALE!!!
Oh. My. Word!!
Do you know you can clean out stuff? That you can down size? You can rid yourself of clothes unworn and household dust-catchers, and even....dare I say it...FABRIC!?! at a yard sale!?! And I did!! To the tune of over a $1,000!
I set out on a mission to de-clutter and scale down. Is it possible to have too much fabric!? For me, the answer is yes. I couldn't get to the pieces I wanted. I couldn't see the forest for the trees!! I couldn't pull out pieces to audition because there were already too many pieces out!!
So I got desperate and ruthless, and starting making decisions about what I would keep and what could go. That fabulous Jan Patek block-of-the-month. There are other applique projects that I want more, so it hit the sale table. UFO's that I'd lost interest in, or had started in a class only to push it to the back of the closet. Yards and yards of "It's so pretty I can't resist it!" fabric filled laundry baskets. Neutrals, prints, Moda, RJR, even my precious Thimbleberries....pared down to manageable amounts.
That Orca Bay Bonnie Hunter mystery that I was sure I wouldn't be finishing...suddenly, with some of the clutter removed, I could put pieces on the design wall...
Could it...?
Would it work....?Oh. My. Word!!!
It's a quilt top!! A sorta Bonnie Hunter meets Jo Morton little quilt top!! And I'm as giddy as a schoolgirl!! I'm a quilter again!!! Who knew!!?!?
One of my favorite passages of scripture is from Hebrews 12:1. The Amplified version says it this way:
"Therefore then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us." (Hebrews 12:1 AMP)
Entangled is a good word. And I have to laugh about stripping off the encumbrance. All day at the yard sale I wore a quilt t-shirt that said, "Eleanor Burns made a stripper outta me!"
How it matters that we throw aside the things that are keeping us from becoming all God created us to be!!
I keep visualizing the Space Shuttle...with the pieces falling off, boosters shooting the spacecraft into orbit....Beautiful!! What unnecessary weight do you need to throw off!?
This is my year. My jubilee! Mary Kay said, "If you simplify, you will simply fly!" Pounds (20 so far!), and clutter and yes, even beautiful things that cannot be appreciated for the sheer bulk of them. It's time to be boosted to the stars!! Time to be ALL that God desires me to be!
Blessings!!
