Accomplishment: the ability to see undeniable progress after as little as 5 minutes.
Multitasking: quilting while talking, listening, watching, etc
Flow: What is the opposite of decision fatigue? Quilting is so slow that you can get in a groove working, and not need to 'pause and decide' for hours & even days!
Watch anything on tv, and know that the reminder to look up is inherently valuable for keeping your neck healthy.
Quilters! You get to meet other quilters. Including on instagram, doing things like the #vignettesquilt quilt along. I feel in awe of the support, inventiveness, teamwork, and learning in this #.
Repurposing. Sustainable Sewing like that addressed in Soft Bulk episodes #3 with Sherri Lynn Wood and #4 with the Zero Waste Chef is both ethically inspiring, and makes quilting more financially accessible than other artforms. Did you see how I recently demo'd trapunto with fluff from a pill-bottle?
Self care. When I teach a quilting class, I so frequently see folks who've carved out a tiny bit of time to refill their own cups. This in turn makes them kinder, gentler, more patient people in other areas of life.
Independence! The ability to make a beautiful functional object yourself, without needing to buy a finished version in a store.
Self expression: making endless creative decisions, that are entirely yours to make and no-one else's. Plus, the therapeutic benefits of creating, and the insights gleaned by observing one's creative choices.
Skill. Feeling talented and capable is amazing. The big sweeping joy of feeling good at making quilts, and allllll the micro joys of threading needles, matching corners, turning edges, and stacking a big, juicy bunch of running stitches in one pull of the needle!
Stitching Together Joy:
Creating this Makerie workshop on Joy has been food for my soul. Yesterday, I spoke with my colleagues Ekta Kaul and Adriana TorresLIVE on instagram, and we shared about our experiences learning from each other, researching joy, and innovating unique creative projects that could be made as gifts this winter season.
In November 2017, I co-curated a show calledGIFTwith my friendLois Bielefeld, in which we asked artists to exhibit the things they make for their loved ones. Although the idea to teach a Makerie retreat based on that idea was postponed due to the pandemic, it feels revived in this workshop.
***A note that sometimes joy can be a particularly elusive emotion. I shared in yesterday's LIVE that I was told almost a year ago that I was especially low on joy by my naturopath-- who has helped improve my health in many measurable ways. In this workshop, I believe that one of the highlights will be in sharing many small, but specific and reliable ways to improve joy. As you'll learn in myHabits lecture, linking new habits with reliable ones is something I call habit-snuggling, and so: if you already have a stitching habit, you can snuggle that with new habits for feeling joy.
