One of the things I do on the Kizer and Bender posts is write long hashtags when I’ve had enough coffee. I believe a hashtag needs to be used so many times before it comes up in searches so I don’t know if it’ll show up but search for #teriwriteslonghashtags. Even the hashtags from my book are long #colorthreadandfreemotionquilting #learntostitchwithrecklessabandon.
Over the last few days I’ve been spending some necessary time with my Sweetie, quilting for a friend, attended a cohort meeting, am having an on-going internal debate and a consult with Lee at May Chappel over two GoPro cameras and am working on a quilt for a friend which has some trapunto style quilting to it (pictures as soon as I can). There’s been some reading, time with another quilter friend and her Love. Today will include a bit of tidying up so I can film, a trip to the post office and a good giggle.
Saturday my Sweetie and I went to a couple of local stores looking for chairs for the front porch because sunrises are the thing out my front door. And front porches are delightful places of gathering with a glass of wine and good friends and neighbors. Several stores later our front porch is still simply decorated with a bunny and koala, (both in desperate need of new bows) wrought iron bistro chair that has reached completion with a basket of pansies. Just like quilting sometimes you have to say no to a lot of things before you say yes.
Comprehension that leads to the ability to do, then further to teach happens over time. This work towards comprehension, doing, and teaching is oft accompanied by frustration and necessarily more than one person involved in teaching. There are classes wherein I can see myself struggling so hard to understand and do the work, leaving those classes with not only a full on lack of comprehension and failing grades but also the deep seated sense of Being a failure for a lack of understanding on MY part. Learning is, in and of itself, a multi level conversation between the student and teacher, the student and the work, and whatever is going on within extended relationships. From these experiences in school I learned that failure is an option, one that often offers us the opportunity to look at something differently and this looking differently very much depends on further conversation and relationship. One of the other Big Takes from these experiences is the need for flexibility in explaining concepts so that the student achieves the comprehension that will lead to the ability to do the work.
I’m chuckling as I write this because in some ways I’ve become the teacher that I needed in those days. I often have more than one way to approach teaching free motion quilting, and basic color theory based on both what I’ve learned from others, and the quilting for hours and hours and hours and hours. This is also how I’ve come to understand how color plays with us, that we each see and respond to color differently, and that the color of the thread we use for quilting will look very different from here to there.
There are so many words jumbling around right now.
I reached out to someone for some feedback on a couple of things asking for about seven minutes of time. About an hour later I was left with a deeper understanding of how to proceed with a couple of things going forward. I hope this has piqued your interest. A few days ago I read something that kind of made me giggle, which is what started this post. Then while having this conversation I wanted to share this with her and read something else that made me laugh out loud.
If you’ve gotten this far with today’s rambling thoughts please leave a comment on your favorite colors and is it a color you wear.
Happy Quilting,
Teri
