Making Time for Side Projects
Sometimes I get bored with watercolor. I’ve found that this boredom can stem from different things:
I am tired, getting close to burnout, and have too many other projects competing for my attention.
I’m having trouble finding interesting subjects to paint.
I’m struggling with “what is the point” syndrome and questioning why I am spending so much time on this whole painting and blogging thing.
Fabric purchased for baby quilt. Size fat quarters.
Often I can remedy this mood by switching mediums or by buying some new supplies. Sometimes though, I find that an even better solution is to put everything away and take a complete break away from watercolor. For a break to do me any good, it usually needs to last at least a week, but sometimes even longer than that.
I had a perfect opportunity to put watercolor on pause recently when we found out that very good friends of ours were expecting their first baby and I decided that I wanted to make them a baby quilt.
I learned to quilt when I was little from my mom, Blaire, who is a prolific quilter. (Hi mom!) She ran a quilt store out of our home when I was little, and then had her own quilt store, and now she has her own studio in the basement where she works on her own projects as well as projects for paying customers.
Studio layout for quilting projects.
I quilt on and off and probably average a quilt every few years, but every time I start a project I remember how much I enjoy quilting. I wasn’t quite bored with watercolor, but I took this baby quilt project as a good opportunity to take a break before true frustration set in. So away went all of the painting supplies and out came the sewing machine, cutting mat, rotary cutter, ruler, fabric, thread and everything else one needs to create a quilt. As many of you know by now, my studio space is small, just a 2x4 foot table in my living room, so there is literally only room for one creative project at a time.
A baby quilt was a perfect side project to get a bit lost in because it wasn’t going to hijack my attention for months. A baby quilt usually takes a month or two at most with the limited hours I have outside of work.
I do not quilt very often, so I generally pick simple patterns when I do. For this baby quilt, I chose a simple nine patch using 2.5 inch squares. Due to the simple pattern, there are very few decisions to make along the way. This makes quilting a very relaxing activity for me, but in a different way from painting. I feel like I am using a different side of my brain when I am quilting and it is its own form of meditation. It’s literally just straight lines and squares. If you follow the steps you will arrive at the desired outcome eventually.
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Cut fabric squares for nine patch pattern.
With painting, you are constantly wondering: “is this the decision that is going to ruin the painting?” With quilting, it’s a lot of sew, iron, pin, sew, repeat.
I worked on this project in batches that happened to coincide with Vasya being out of town over the course of a couple months. This meant that I could literally take over the whole living room with the activity. My first round of quilting was cutting all of the fabric pieces and sewing together the nine patch blocks. Next round was putting together the blocks into the quilt top. Then I took advantage of my momma being in town and her discerning eye to purchase the backing fabric, batting (for inside the quilt), and to pick her brain for how to machine quilt the project myself. (Machine quilting is the step where you hold all the layers together: back fabric, batting in between, and then quilt top.) The final step was to sew the binding by hand.
It was a fun project to dive in and out of around my painting practice. I’m excited to get to share about it now that it has arrived at its forever home (I hope you love it baby Jude). To me the sign of a good baby quilt is one that is used and loved until it is in tatters. And when my sewing machine is safely stored away, I’m excited to dive back into the world of watercolor.
Nine patch blocks sewn together.
Pinning binding for final hand stitching.
Baby quilt complete and off to baby Jude.
How do you switch things up when you are getting tired or bored?