Hexie Progress, Row Three!

I am losing steam on my hexies! But I did finish my third row finally. It takes me a week to add the grey hexi sections and get the row sewn together, and theoretically that means I should have it done in about 6-7 weeks. But as I said, I am losing steam. Staying with it and not straying has been difficult.



I have decided on a name for it however. It may be cheesy, but it encapsulates the start and process this project has been a part of: The Healing Time.



Though much of those doctor/hospital/travel visits were about passing time while major medical events were going on, I did bring it along with me in the down time of recharging such as going camping or to the cabin. Sometimes it was just there because my brain was so full that I couldn't do anything else but be on auto-mode to pass time.



I was thinking about the modern quilt movement recently and how I have also gone through many changes in my "quilt life":
1. Hand sewing (no machine of my own yet)
2. First attempts at machine sewing/quilting
3. Becoming addicted, finding online resources and groups to connect with
4. Creating through inspiration in many books/patterns
5. No pattern time, art quilts
6. No quilting because I had a lot going on and mentally I just couldn't sit down to create. Somewhere in here I learned to knit.
7. Decided patterns are not evil and terrible and it's ok to fall back in love with sewing again
8. Kits and patterns because still I have too much going on but I want to create
9. I love quilting again--both playing with my own ideas and buying patterns.

I've decided the "all or nothing" mantra that I saw in myself just isn't right for me anymore. It's ok not to have an "original". Feel the joy of simply creating because you know what? In less than 12 months I have gifted more quilts to people that love them (even if they are from a taught technique or pattern) than I have in a long time. And really, that is what it's about, right? When a child feels that gift wrapped around them, that warms all hearts. They know it was just for them.

So I know while many people are just fine with sticking with one facet of what to create; in that facet, never lose that joy in the creation--and further, share it with others. This hexie quilt has changed but it's always been the same since the start. Figuring out the setting, the colors to use as a background (which, I admit may have been a wrong choice--but the grays actually fit with the title and time that this quilt has gone through), it's all a part of the joy that I do feel when I can be making something good. Someday what this quilt meant to me will be lost in time, but for right now, it is meaningful to me.

Now to keep myself fresh, I will likely take another week off on sewing my hexies and think about the latest Doll Quilt Swap and what I want to create. The ideas are already percolating!