and sometimes I sew

I do, really I do! Sometimes I sew cq (crazy quilting) and I did some last night.

The rr (round robin) has been going on for ages now (sigh!) and there have been a few problems, 4 blocks have gone missing between Australian and the USA and between New Zealand and the USA. This is really sad and has upset the joy of international co-operation :o( But everyone is still in and steps are being taken to try and trace the missing blocks, I do hope they turn up :o)

The other one of the pair of blocks I have just finished working on is this one



I feel a huge sense of relief at getting this work done and these blocks posted. This led me to pondering (not for the first time) why I have gone over so strongly to knitting.

It has a large ammount to do with all the 'other stuff' that has been going on in our lives for the last year. With something nagging away for the last 14months I haven't been able to sit with a clear mind and a happy heart and to embroider. Sounds a bit extreme I know but sewing is not like knitting, not for me.

Sewing is concentrating, and design (well, cq is) and I want to do my very best as I am adding to the work of others and don't want to detract from their wonderful work with my mediocraty. Whilst I have been preoccupied (even when you are not directly working on the problem the worry impinges on every other area of your life) I have not done my best work. I have not done what I have done as fast or as well as I should have done it either. It has not been worked with a happy heart.

But progress was made on the problem (although it is not completely resolved) and we are at last making steps in the right direction. My dark worry cloud has drifted off and it's clear skies again.

As is usual that is not the whole story. The ongoing commitments I took on last year as part of my sewing forum werte too ongoing. The Row by Row lasted to long (or at least it will have when I finally finish the row I am working on at the moment) It has become a chore, not this row especially but the whole project. The cq, I have already said, has also dragged on and felt like an obligation not a pleasure.

I know this has a lot to do with how I have been feeling as the year has progressed and by how weighed down I have been feeling.

Knitting is more adaptable, it is easier to pick up and put down. No boxes of beads, silks, buttons, threads, etc. to get out and pack away each time. Just a ball of yarn a needle and a pattern, more portable,. Patterns that I can knit in meetings (and I do) patterns I need to concentrate on and become absorbed in, patterns for zoning out at the end of the day and above all recently the discovery that I can make my own patterns too.

Now don't get me wrong I think that they can co-exist, that I will knit and sew. When I was little my Mum sewed in the summer and knitted in the winter. I wont be taking on any ongoing commitments though, not for the foreseeable future. I don't like the feeling that I am letting people down when I miss deadlines, I don't like the feeling that I 'have' to sew tonight and my first thought yesturday when I finished those cq blocks was "Oh good, I can cast on for a new knitting project now!"

One more thing to finish first, row by row, and then I can put my lovely rows together to make my Christmas Quilt. I am very glad that I took part in this - I have a beautiful set of rows to assemble which will remind me of the people who sewed a row for me, and for which I will always be grateful, but it hasn't always been easy. Sometimes it's not easy to sew, so far it's always easy to knit.