I participated in the 100 Day Project again this year. This is my second 100 Day Project and it ends this Wednesday on July 27. It almost seems like a non-issue for me. I have continued creating fabric art every day since the first 100 Day Project I participated in last year in 2015. And I plan to continue creating fabric art every day. I decided I don't feel the need to do the 100 Day Project next year. Between 2015 and 2016 so far, I've made a daily square for 455 days. I just keep doing it. Do I feel I have something to prove? I don’t think so. I enjoy creating my daily square. For two weeks at the end of 2015, I took a break from making my daily square and it made me feel empty, like I was forgetting something all day long. You know that feeling when you just subconsciously feel you are forgetting to do something important but just not sure what it is. It felt like that. The act of creating provides an anchor for my day. This daily practice gives me a place to create using my mindful daydreams about color and design (See last week's article about Mindful Daydreaming). I could not imagine not creating every day. Maybe the form of the daily creation will change in the future. But I know this consistency is something to keep close. I understand the benefits of keeping that connection to my creativity and keeping the door open. It's almost like water continues to flow through my days. My concern is if I stop creating it will back up and create a deluge of too many ideas when I restart.
So next steps... I keep going.
I got my Juki 2010 sewing machine back from the repair shop. Vindication!! Vindication feels awesome. It was the #@*^ walking foot the whole time. I thought it was the walking foot all along. For those of you who are not quilters, the walking foot is the attachment on the sewing machine which keeps the three layers you are sewing together smooth as you quilt. When you add such thick layers with the backing fabric, cotton batting and sewed quilt top, you need to have a foot that runs loosely on top of the fabric. This is the walking foot. So ever since I bought this machine in November 2015, I kept thinking I was doing something wrong because the sewn fabric was not smooth, like at all. I added more pins to the quilt sandwich of three layers. I sewed slower. I tried all sorts of different things. Justin the repair man said there is nothing that I could've done to cause this. It was always the faulty walking foot. It caused problems for two different reasons. We thought he had fixed one of the problems in January 2016. But the second problem with the inflexibility of the foot still made the fabric look bumpy and terrible. I procrastinated out of frustration and used my old sewing machine for awhile. Then one day I realized it was ridiculous to use my old inferior machine and I had to tackle this issue head on. I dropped off my Juki 2010 at the repair shop. He had my machine for a whole week trying to figure out the real issue. I can't tell you what a relief it was to hear that there was nothing I could have done because I really was doubting myself as a quilter. I learned that procrastinating is never a good solution to a problem. Next time I will address any technical difficulties as they arise to minimize just stewing about it. Lesson learned. For the second 100 Day Project, I made a large series of four pieces called the Four Elements. I am including a photo of the Fire Series daily squares all sewn together using my new walking foot.
Day 100-126, Fire series, 2016. 30 inches by 30 inches. Kona cotton fabric.
So my machine is back and I am going to be happily catching up with all of my 25 day quilts.
But not until after vacation.
There will be no Studio Notes article next week since I will be up in the Northwoods on vacation. So when you check your email for my article next week, you know it did not go to your spam filter or your updates folder. I am just on vacation. So look for my next weekly article the second week of August.
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