I've been thinking about creativity and my creative process. It certainly starts out with a LOT of procrastination, I have to say. I like to think it's really thinking and planning time, but wow, I can come up with so many other things to do than actually sit down at my sewing machine.

And I don't know why that is, because I love to sew. I keep saying that once I start, I won't be able to stop, and just watch out. But, getting started is hard sometimes.

Or maybe it’s getting re-started that’s so hard.

Does your creative process include procrastination? Why is it so hard to get re-started after a project’s completion or when circumstances change?

It’s funny, because I’ve dreamed of having a bigger sewing studio for years. Last summer I moved my studio out of my should-have-been-an-en-suite-bathroom tiny sewing space into an empty-nest bedroom. I’m thrilled with my design wall, and the freedom of movement in more space. However, I miss the natural light in my old space, and even the comfort of working in the space in which I have created almost all of my quilts. I guess I haven’t yet made my new studio my own, even though I’ve set it up so I’m happy with it.

I just need to make that first quilt in the space, and then I’ll feel like it’s really mine and I can be creative there, too.

I just need to get re-started.

So, how will I do it? I’ve tried a few things.

Putting away all of my fabric stash into my plastic drawer units – by color, of course. Well, almost all…there are still some piles waiting…
Hanging a quilt on the design wall that just needs ONE seam stitched and it can go to the long-arm quilter. It was on the wall for like, four months. I took it down.
Opening a box. One of my quilts, Genesis, had been hung in an AQS show in February 2020. They sent my quilt back after the show, and, of course, Covid had started. I finally opened the box a couple of weeks ago. It was fun to see an “old friend”, and I hung it up on my design wall, since I’d taken down the top that still needs just one seam. Genesis remains the only thing on my design wall, thus far.
Finding fabrics for a quilt – I worked for weeks and I still haven’t found the right combination for it, yet, so it might go to the back burner…again. But I found a new color I want to use soon – red-violet! Maybe that will get me moving.

Now, it’s not all bad. I opened that box. I went shopping for fabric. I have most of my stash put away. These are all part of making quilts and part of the creative process.

Maybe if I give myself permission to put on hold for now that quilt for which I have yet to find the right fabrics, and start planning one with red-violet, it will get me moving. Motivation – color!

Maybe I need more deadlines. I work well under the pressure of deadlines.

Perhaps combining color and deadlines together might work. I really like a couple of the red-violet batiks I bought. I guess I’d better get them washed so that when the right time comes – once I have a deadline - they’re ready for me to cut them up and stitch them together. I hope that time comes soon.

I’d love to hear about your creative process and where you get stuck. Post a comment below or email me at heidi@dynamicquilting.com.

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