Cut it out!!

Earlier in the year there was a lot of hubbub about choosing your word for the year.  I thought and thought about it.  But none of the words that occurred to me early in the year were right for me.  Other people picked really good ones. 

Shelley chose "KISS" (for Keep It Simple, Shelley!).  No more complicating things.  Good word!
My friend Paula chose "accept."  To accept circumstances in life that we don't always understand.  To accept generosity and grace....Another excellent word.

I think I've found my word. Finally.

NO -- finally isn't the word, silly!! My word is

CUT!

I'm cutting this year.

Cutting out things that suck the life outa me. 

Like the politics of women.  I don't mean national politics.  I mean women-on-women crime.  Nastiness. Competitiveness.  "If you're friends with her you can't be friends with me."  Or the insidious "Did you know...." about so-n-so (otherwise known as "gossip"). 

Do you get any of that with the women you know?  CUT!!!  I'm finding that if I walk away from conversations that cut down other women, I'm a whole lot less likely to get dragged into the politics of females, AND I never have to worry about what I've said!  Help me, Lord, to cut out my eager ear and wagging tongue!!

I'm cutting out the fat!!

Two kinds of fat, actually.

All the stuff I don't need to do.  I don't need to volunteer for every worthy notion that comes along in my kids' activities or church or even quilt club!  I don't need to say YES just because I CAN.  Can and should are two very different things. 

There are specific things I'm called to do....Be a wife, a mother, a homeschooler, a worship leader, and a quilter.  (Well, of course, a quilter! DUH! :-P) Anything that doesn't fit into the mission statement of those things is open game for the blade.

I'm cutting the fat on my body! It's about time.  Three months into the year, and I'm down nearly 20 lbs.  It's slow going, but I'm determined.  A dear friend of mine, a former pastor who has always been in excellent shape, suffered a heart attack a few nights ago.  He will recover, but how much worse would he have fared if he hadn't been in pretty good shape to begin with?  So -- I'm cutting the fat and the junk foods and trying to eat and exercise in a way that promotes health. 

I'm cutting down the spending.  The stash I have is enough fabric to provide quilts down to the 5th generation.  (Lord help me live long enough!! :-D) I'm trying to make everything from stash from now on. I'll probably still buy the occasional small piece of fabric (like I did today, Paula! :-D) -- but I'm not indulging in every "That's so pretty!" I feel at quilt shows, quilt shops, online haunts and ebay.  Enough!!

And finally, I'm cutting my fabric!!!

With the help of so many of you, who inspire me to be creative and use what I have and LOVE it....I'm cutting into all those pieces I've been saving for "just the right project."  THIS project -- whatever it is! -- is the right project.  THIS project -- will have a place for that yardage or fat quarter or scrap that's waiting in closets or bins or shelves to be cut.

Jesus was all about cutting deadwood in your life.  "If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off...If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off..." (Mark 9: 43, 45).  Better, He says, that you go through life maimed than let the deadwood drag you to hell.  Strong words.
Good words.

His and my soapbox message to me! :-)  (Thank you, Jesus!)
Is there anything you need to cut out this year?

Blessings!

Backgrounds

I have declared a fabric-buying "moratorium" -- a suspension of activity...

[Snort!!]

No, really! I have!! I need to slow down and finish some projects and stash shop, complete the kits and blocks of the months and what not that I have piled up in the available closet, floor and shelf space in my 12' x 15' sewing room.

I've noticed a pattern, though, in my fabric buying of late. I'm a sucker for a good background.

I took stock after I got the Kaffe/Phillip fabric and started pulling stash for Roseville by Kim McLean.  What would be a good background?!

In my closet there are bits of Marcus and Moda and Andover and Thimbleberries, Buggy Barn and Maywood and Makower....creams, beiges (I'm partial to those that complement the darker tones! :-D), whites....You just can't have too many good backgrounds.  But nothing that really "spoke" to me for Roseville.

I ended up buying a Moda piece from the Bliss line  (it's second from the left in the photo) -- similar to Kim's recommended "dotty" background fabrics, just a bit subtler with a light creamy white dot on a creamy background.

I didn't even blink when I bought the required 9+ yards -- it seems I buy background fabric in bulk! LOL  Most of the pieces I have in my stash are a minimum of 3 yards, and some are even more, upwards of 6 to 8 yards, with whole bolts of Kona cottons in cream, bone, snow, khaki and white!

In most of my quilts, even the scrappiest, I notice that I often use the same background throughout to "unify" the piece.

I think that's why I like investing in good backgrounds.  The quilts I make "feel" better to me if they are unified with some element throughout -- theme or color or background.  Background gives me more options; I don't have to have a "matchy-matchy" quilt if the background pulls the design together around my other color choices.

And now that I'm applique crazy....well, good backgrounds are the framework for all the intricate design and work of beautiful flowers, stars, vines, folk-art, etc., that make up my current projects.

I'd like to think that my life is like that, too.  That there is a "framework" for all the details of my existence, some unifying element that binds it all, that coheres the varying pieces of Mary Lou.

The apostle Paul wrote about such a framework to the church at Colosse.  It was a time of economic crisis, immorality, and false teaching (does that sound at all familiar... like anything we've been experiencing in our time and in our country?), and Paul told them that there is One who holds it all together:

"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together." (Colossians 1:15-17, emphasis, mine :-)

With Christ as my Cohere-er :-), I don't have to worry about holding it all together myself.  With Him as my framework, I can bring all the disjointed pieces -- scraps, many of them, some that others might even throw away! -- and present a beautiful Quilt that glorifies the One who created all things, including me and you, and blesses those who touch it, day in and day out.

So no fabric buying for a while.  I think I'll see what One can do with the pieces that I have!

Blessings!