Out with the old and …
You know how it is when you’re surfing through the blogs in your reader. Some of the blog’s you really used to enjoy have become ho-hum, or totally self-absorbed in a way that’s not interesting or sharing but that’s self-indulgent and I’m on the point of culling some I’ve followed for a while for those reasons.
… in with the new.
But I’m also adding some new ones that are well-written, great to read and fun. The one I want to share with you today was brought to my attention by Doris, a valued member of our little Sewjournal community and list Mom of the Yahoo Group QuiltsByHand. Doris is full of useful advice and very generous at sharing it too. Anyway in a recent post in the list she spoke about a blog post by the Yarn Harlot on her Inner Knitter.
Doris is a little concerned because she has multiple Inner Creatives ( a knitter and a quilter). I followed the Yarn Harlot link to the April 11 2012 post and it is really a great piece of writing. It’s funny, it’s beautifully written and so true. (If you’re wondering about the black nail polish photo* then all will become clear when you read the blog)
Tell me about your Inner Creatives
Please take five minutes and read the Inner Knitter then come back and tell me about your inner creative spirit. I’m going to award a prize to the one that makes me laugh most. Personally I’m a bit like Doris, I have several Inner Creatives – a knitter, a quilter, a writer and a cook. When I was younger and my daughter was small I had many more but I’ve killed them off or retired them over the years. There was the lead lighter, the spinner, the weaver, the dyer, the dressmaker, the tapestry designer and maker, the embroiderer, the mural painter, the gardener and probably more that I can no longer remember. I think The Yarn Harlot is fortunate that she only has one Inner Creative to do battle with. When you have several and they are all yelling “Pick Me! Pick Me! Pick Me!” it can get a little overwhelming.
*Black Nail Polish Photo courtesy of toxic-xx-love
Re: Inner Creative Spirit
I have no inner creative spirit, or for that matter no outer creative spirit. Oh, sometimes I start to believe that I do, but then my reality takes over. I don’t think that I’ve had an original idea since 1965, but of course that doesn’t stop me from buying fabric. Ah, fabric. At least I seem to have narrowed my lack of creativity to quilting, and a little bit of crocheting. Or maybe I should say purchasing fabric and yarn. I know that when my time is over and my family is going through my belongings, they will be saying “What was she thinking?” Well, let me say here and now, I don’t care what they think (mostly because I’ll be gone). I like buying fabric, I like thinking about fabric, I like touching fabric, I like washing fabric, I like ironing fabric, I like looking at fabric on my shelves. Sue Hausman once said “people collect stamps and never lick them”, so there you are!Fabric can be collected and looked at for pure enjoyment. Along with fabric collecting the collecting of patterns, books, ideas ripped from magazines and the internet. Occasionally I look through my ‘pattern-book-idea’ collection and rearrange my priorities, never throwing away anything just in case I change my mind.
Maybe when I get to that great quilting frame in the sky, my dreams of making the quilt like the one that lives in my mind will happen. Until then I’ll lust after the quilts that people like Annette, Sylvia, Doris and Munaiba make. You girls rock!
By the way, I liked being a teenager. That might explain my lack of disipline.
Fran
Hi Munaiba,
I think age kills off some of our inners! While I still have an inner knitter & quilter my inner gardner is now barely a whisper. Not that I’ve stopped gardening but now when I’m planning my plantings & she pops up with “How about filling that slope with rhododendrans it will only take about 30?” I can shut her up by saying if I planted 30 I’d be in bed for a month & NO gardening would get done!