September 10th

So I started machine quilting. I'm doing a very thread-intense pattern which I've been calling "snaily-Q's". It's a lot of fun, and now I finally understand all that talk on quilt blogs about curved safety pins, garden gloves, thread tension, stitch regulation, and running out of bobbin thread. In one length of quilting I used up 5 bobbins, is that normal? Anyway, I'm having lots of fun with it and now have great dreams of making tons and tons of quilts, just like all the other machine-quilting quilt bloggers.

You might be wondering why, out of the blue, i decided to pull out this UFO and teach myself to machine quilt the same week I went back to school. See, after my dismal post last week I had a small breakdown-- Costas asked me a question about future home remodeling. "Future" as in our 5-10 year plan, whether or not to knock down a wall and... And I felt myself crumble. I held back tears and tried to explain to him that I didn't have the mental capacity to have that discussion right now, that I was trying as hard as I could to deal with school and George not sleeping and adjusting to a new schedule. I know daydreaming about "fixing things" is one of his hobbies so I apologized to him and told him I didn't enjoy thinking about things like that (usually because we disagree and end up arguing about things that haven't happened yet), and he said,
"Then what do you enjoy thinking about?" (as previous discussions that day involved how stressed I was thinking about school and scheduling for George)
"Quilting." I answered.
And then it hit me. Thinking and daydreaming about quilting is stress free. It is calming, soothing. I can do it anytime, anywhere, and I almost immediately feel better. So I realised I need quilting in my life. For my mental sanity, for balance. In order to hold me together; so I can function, so I can cope.
That's why I started working on my "1994" quilt and why I have put my Travel Quilt kit on the shelf in George's room. While he sleeps I split my time between studying and quilting, and now while he plays I can sometimes stitch 2 or 3 diamonds together. I'm not in any rush. I'm striving for happiness, peace and balance in my life. I think I'm moving in the right direction.