A quilting tale of sorts. Guess who spent a whole year in a quilt bee group not quilting? Consequently, not quilting because she would look at the projects other quilters brought for Show ‘N Tell at the end of every Monday meeting AND that had this lady stuck. She would look at these gorgeous quilts and tell herself things like:
“I can’t do that!”
“I can’t even figure out how to cut out the pattern.”
“How am I going to do that? I can’t do that.”
I confess, it was me. Honestly, I spent a whole year thinking I can’t do that!
Enter, My Quilting Angel
Finally, this one lady–my quilting angel, kinda took me under her wing. She said, “Honey, you are going to make a quilt.” And I was like, I can’t quilt. All my crazy doubts came to surface. I don’t know to quilt, I don’t even know how to cut it out.
My quilting angel said, “I’m going to find you a beginners Beginner quilt pattern.” So she went through some stuff, grabbed some things and said pick ONE of these three and I did.
Next she said, “Do you know how to cut a quilt?”
I answered with a resounding, “NO!” She said, you just do like this and she had the rotary cutter and made a cutting motion. Surprisingly, she made it look so simple.
She handed me the rotary cutter and then said I’ll be right back. She left me to the business of cutting out my first quilt. There I was with all my self-doubts. At this instant, I was still thinking, I don’t know how to quilt, this lady’s crazy. Next thing I know, I was cutting out a quilt.
From there, she told me to go home and start sewing and what to do from that point. Surprisingly, I said okay even though I was skeptical. In any event, I made a quilt in less than a week.
A time to tear apart and a time to sew together; A time to be silent and a time to speak. Ecclesiastes 3:7
Since that time, I’ve learned so much about the art of quilting and these three things must be remembered:
- It’s okay to borrow courage from someone else who believes in you.
- The best way to begin anything is to simply start.
- Navigating around roadblocks of the mind is possible.
The moral of this tale…
If you find yourself struggling with a battle of the mind, know that you are not alone. Battles are fought, won and lost in the mind of many women just like you everyday. Stay close to those who will cheer you on. Ultimately, you get to make the decision to take the first step in your own quilting tale, even if you don’t actually quilt!
