She didn’t exactly make me cry in the sense that I was in her physical presence and she said/did something that made me cry. Nope. I’m reading her book Your Blue Flame Drop the Guild and do What Makes you Come Alive. The kindle version of the book opened up to chapter 8: You can Finally Accept Yourself which talks about shame and humility and, wait for it, “The Life-Changing Magic of Accepting Your Quirky Self.” I started thinking about all the whackadoodle stuff I say to quilters to make the whole process of learning how to machine quilt a whole lot easier, and how when I’m offering some lecture/trunk show the stories I tell about the quilts are just funny enough that quilters actually laugh. To use Angela Walters words I’m snarky dry, and having watched a live video with my bestie Debby Brown our comedic timing was on. I do like to play with words much to the irritation of some friends, probably a lot of student and well I’m sure more than one teacher in school.
The whole eighth chapter of this book really got me thinking about how I write. In my head the writing is a whole lot funnier, then when I sit down I feel as though I’ve entered this great hall of books, complete with the fragrance of age and wisdom and that my posture and writing should reflect being in this great hall and the wisdom of all the quilters on whose shoulders I stand to quilt. Because y’all know I’m a fun-sized quilter and I really need to stand on someone’s shoulders to reach the handles of the machine. Good golly I wish I could doodle me standing at the frame, on someone’s shoulders, because I mean visually this would be hilarious.
As a whole aside this move to Texas is great for my head, hair included. I still haven’t quite figured out how to manage the mane of hair and the curliness. I did try something new this morning, I spritzed the comb with some kind of coconut something or another curl and frizzy hair manager, combing was great, the curls are good, I don’t know about the frizz yet, that remains to be seen and while the mirror isn’t too far from where I am there is enough distance between me and it that I cannot tell. Ha! That there is a great quilting rule, if you don’t notice from ten feet away on a galloping horse then don’t worry about it. Yeah but when I’m trying to fil and all I can see is the frizzy hair? Oh good golly.. This takes me to the next chapter in her book.You Can Take Up Space wherein there is a look toward changing the perception of “everything is out of my control” to “I’ll do what I can control” It’s a little more nuanced than this explanation. But the bigger point is something I’ve noticed all year long, an internal flipping of the script coupled with looking at what’s going on to see the hidden gem there. The hidden gem for me is has lots of information that I’m sifting through. The fun part is remembering that there are gifts and talents I’m meant to share.
So for this week I’m going to focus on doing the stuff I need to do to get ready for going to Houston including making sure that the bed in the guest room doesn’t have any quilts on it so someone can actually sleep on the bed. Squee. Company. I like company, especially ones who are quilters and are funny and thoughtful.
Oh! I’m also editing video. Tomorrow is the release of the first Quilted Feature! I’ll post here first and then share on other social media outlets.
Also:
And the great Picture Show
And the place we engage in so many characters
And the place where we chat each other up
And the great big bulletin board and idea wall
Have a Totally Fab Quilting Day,
Teri
