First up…a moment of hilarity
The second thing I do after turning on the sewing machine is turn on the tunes, a movie, a book on CD, something for background noise. Why the second? I like the sound of the machine as it boots up…the gears and everything calibrating. It’s so cool.
I have probably 30 to 40 stations on Pandora that are rather eclectic. It ranges from Matt Maher and Rich Mullins to Hootie and the Blowfish (Darius Rucker) and James Taylor to Daft Punk and Crash Test Dummies. Adele and Pink, Florence + the Machine and Maroon 5. Yep, it’s wide ranging. A lot will depend on my mood and how intensely I’m quilting. If it’s really intense I’ll change stations quite frequently until I find just the right thing. Sometimes it’s a wee bit mellower like Gotye.
If I’m feeling rather nostalgic that’s when I head for James Taylor or Karen Carpenter. I’ve enjoyed Karen’s voice since I was young.
I listen to different music when I’m writing…and again it depends on how intense the writing or my mood.
I watched tv on my computer for a little while or sometimes will watch movies. When I finished up Quantum Leap I marathon watched the Lord of the Rings Trilogy of movies at least 3 times. Yes there’s that much stitching in that quilt.
I do suggest having something playing in the background while quilting for a couple of reasons
1) it reduces our personal physical tension as we stitch by providing us with something else to pay attention
2) it lessens the negative loop in our thinking – uh yeah we all have that, “this looks like crap” loop that runs through our heads
3) we do have brains that multi-task to some degree – by giving our brain something else to focus on we can relax and just stitch
off to stitch!
Teri
This morning I made a cup of tea, sat down opened my Facebook and there , at the top of my news feed your blog appeared and having the free extra time I clicked away to a wonderful little journey you took me on this morning. I found myself laughing at the moment of Hilarity video and nodding my head in agreement as I too use my music and videos as my background noise while working too . I’m glad I took the Tericreations exit off my busy highway of life today.. It was a pleasure… Thank you
Love the video and Pandora gets a work-out here, too!!!! Quilting/stitching on Radiance silk/cotton or dupioni silk is the ultimate!!!!!!!
Thanks–I’ll definitely be trying your suggestion. I’m tense and self-critical as I’m learning on my longarm, so hope the music helps!
Marilyn, remember to breathe and blink too. Relax your shoulders (breathing helps). Give yourself permission to make mistakes – this helps the process of learning so very much!
-Today I will take a risk and add a hand-cut stencil image to my fabric for quilting. Well…tomorrow I will. Making soup today. Norma
I am going to take a risk by finishing the bag I am making — with an up cycle print I made on my new Gelli plate. 🙂 have fun, doesn’t need to be perfect!!!
Today I will risk adding beads to something I thought was finished.
Today I will take a risk and try making a mini quilt for an upcoming auction.
More and more I like my studio to be quiet while I FMQ. The piece I’m doing now is lacking umph so I think I will have to add paint to give it some spark. YIKES!!