It's week 12! Is anyone else still working away? It's been rather quiet on this topic for awhile. I am plugging away and still love it-- one of the best things I've done for myself.
Linda

sandytn wrote:
AMEN TO THAT!! I had hoped that taking TAW journey would mysteriously lead me to discover the "art quilter" in me....but like Sandy, I just want to do good work and enjoy the journey. Maybe 5 more years will make a difference, but for now, I'm really content with the journey that I'm on today!

I think that is the beauty of thinking about things from a different perspective. We never know where we are going to end up. I learned with kids, never say never. Who knows where I will be five years from now.

Well said Sandy!
My TAW journey is leading me in the opposite direction. As much as I love all the more traditional quilts I have made with patterns, I am wanting to try quilting without a pattern. I have actually begun an improvisational quilt and we will see where it takes me! Trying to take small steps so it's not so scary!
Linda

We are getting near the end of our TAW journey and I am ready to admit that I have come full circle and I’m back where I started but a lot has happened in between. I think I thought to be creative I had to do something different than what I had been doing; I had to do original designs; I had to machine quilt; I had to free motion quilt; I had to do ‘art’ quilts . I learned I don’t have to do anything but what I want to do. I love vintage and antique quilts. I love needle turn appliqué and hand quilting. I love quilts you can wrap up in and sleep under. I want to improve my skills. I want to be more creative in my hand quilting and thanks to Alex’s tutorial I can now draw feathers. I have a day job and it doesn’t matter how long it takes to finish a quilt as long as I enjoy the process. I spent my time at the Virtual Quilting Bee hand quilting my son’s quilt and I loved it.

We divide quilts into traditional vs art quilts. Any quilt that is well made and visually pleasing is an Art Quilt. Whether we piece, paper piece, needle turn, fuse, paint, bead etc. we are all turning fabric into works of art.

My mind is so full of ideas for quilts that I wonder how long I am going to live to be able to complete the ones in my head now, let alone all the ones I will dream up while I sleep and imagine.

I haven't been very diligent in the tasks and have given up the morning pages. I think I'm about a week behind in chapters. I always read them and sometimes reread them. I try to do at least one of the tasks, usually more.

I can't claim any great breakthroughs. I'll consider this a success if I just get through the book! Another time, maybe my life won't be so chaotic as it has been this summer and I can devote more time and concentration to this process.

Joyce

Hi Everyone,

I am so glad to see so many people sticking with it! Good Job.

I finally got moved to California, I live in in Larkspur now, right across the bay from San Francisco. Its BEAUTIFUL here. I am SO happy to be out of Memphis! I am only about 7 or 8 miles from the Dharma Trading company (if your not familiar with them check out there website, lots of textiles stuff!). Anyway, now that I am getting settled in you all should be seeing little more of me, the job search is taking up a lot of my time but hopefully that will be resolved soon too!

So did anyone have any major breakthrough while doing the Artist way program?

Drew

Glad to see others are still plugging away too! I have just started week 9. I think the book is pretty amazing and am really glad to be doing it. I haven't missed a morning with my morning pages-- but I actually like doing them! I'm thinking that reading them may be a long and rather boring experiece however! we will see I'm not so great with the artist dates however. The best one was the week we were supposed to do an all day one--I pulled out one of my many quilt books with techniques I want to try-- and actually tried it!!! Has anyone had some good artist dates?
Linda

I can honestly say that I haven't slacked off .... I have quit completely!
I've lost all desire to get back to it. Guess I'll put the book aside and wait till we do this again later. I'll be able to start when everyone else does then and hopefully get more out of it. It just seemed like I was way to far behind everyone else to really be able to connect what was being discussed on the forum with what I was reading at the time.
For those of you still hanging on. Way To Go!

I didn't write morning pages while on vacation but I did start right back up the day we got home.
I'm going to start week 7 tomorrow. I've been slacking off too. Too much going on right now.
Eileen

Thanks, everyone. I'm glad y'all are still plugging along. I am a perfectionist and have always felt quilting is a great place to be as perfect as I can be, which is not always perfect to my eye. I have spent years trying to let up on the perfectionism in other areas of my life in order to lessen the pressure and stress I put on myself. When I have put in a good effort, my motto is: "It's good enough!" Absolutely perfect is impossible to achieve and I keep reminding myself of that. Besides, one person's perfect may not be another's perfect. So, it is in the eye of the beholder! The quilter's motto of "the ten foot rule" is really a good one for me. Besides, remember, quilt police are always self-appointed! I'm going to go journal now on what's behind my perfectionism. A good topic to explore again. Thanks for all you comments. That's what I love about this forum. Gets me thinking. Have a great day, everyone. Mary Anne

I have always used my morning hours to do my sewing hand work. The morning pages were taking away my precious alone time. I am still doing the morning pages fairly regularly, however, I am only writing one page. That is what is working best for me.

I am happy to know that I am not the only one who is not a perfectionist. (I take special care when participating in a swap because I don't want to send something that isn't acceptable.) I am not doing morning papers all the time(although I have always enjoyed journaling), but I am still enjoying the book, the tasks, and the comments on this forum.
No artist date yet, this week, I have been cleaning out closets and drawers, but I will slip some type of creative fun in by the end of the week I am sure. Elizabeth