Ah-ha and Eureka!

I have always found liberation in other people's insights and examples -- I think back, way back, to Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem. Today I'm thinking in quilting terms. Our guild met today and I listened to an older [well, maybe ten years old then I am] woman who announced earlier in the year that she had some 25 quilt tops made but not quilted. and had no intention of batting/backing/quilting them. She enjoys the making of the tops, not the follow up steps. I've been mulling this attitude. It's very hard to let go of the injunction about finishing what one starts. Seems anti-work-ethic. But why? Hmm...

Today a woman speaking admitted she has 160 quilts "started". She did not even say she has some of the tops finished, she did not explain what amount of completion they were in. 160!! Queen of the UFOs!!! I've been thinking for some hours now -- why not? Who says we can't leap from idea to idea, project to project. Quilting is not "life work". It's hobby, it's pleasure, it's artistic satisfaction -- not, for me, on a par with writing a short story or poem but not far behind. And it's MY life, my hours to LIVE! To handle lovely fabric, to look at and make interesting patterns.

Is this a reaction to the many, many hours spent on that 1500 piece quilt? Very likely. So what? I can stick to it -- I've quilted only 1/8th of the center portion so far but that wasn't onerous so the rest will get done, section by section. I'm beginning to feel a bit liberated by these two women who don't even have a clue that their example is inspiring me.

To be a bit philosophical, one of the things I've long believed is that we never know when something we do, something we say, will affect another person -- positively or negatively. What we do matters. On many levels, for our own satisfaction and for its reverberations in the wider world. This is not a burden, it is being part of the flow of life, it is unavoidable. Hurray. P.S. Thanks to the people who've commented on my startburst quilt, I appreciate your comments. Perhaps I'll post another photo when it's hanging at our guilds show and, possibly, the lighting will be better than in my dim apartmnent.