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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