The Power of Boredom

Anyone who has children and can recall the pace of their early childhood can probably relate to the idea that it would be glorious to sit down, sip something delicious and not do anything for a while. No one making requests, no needs to be addressed, no messes to clean, no food prep or diaper changes. Absolutely nothing to do. Sounds amazing when we are overwhelmed or just busier than we wish to be.

I’ve been gifted with some of this time I wished for back then. Albeit uninvited, I am in the situation of having a lot of time and no real plan to do something specific. I am also returning from travel and just getting back into the studio. It takes a bit of overcoming inertia to get started up again. I have lots of time which is not motivating in and of itself. You know how it is, no where to go and all day to get there.

I started with making something simple just to get the creative juices flowing. Small squares in a color palette that is one of my favorites. Small bits of fabrics and extra scraps from the abundant stockpile of cast off bits. I spent time just getting a rhythm. Cut the nine pieces that would make a square, sew, iron, trim, repeat. Without even thinking about it, I made forty-one squares. With no real plan for what to do with them and no big project inspiring me in any direction. Now what?

I dyed some fabrics in an effort to have larger pieces to help hold my 41 little pieces together. And here’s what happened next.

First, this simple quilt arrived. A row of tiny blocks set into larger hand dyed pieces. Simple, satisfying and a comfortable start.

Next, I added some borders to five squares and once they were stitched together I decided to layer them with a background piece of hand dyed dark blue. I used no rulers except for the outer edge of the dark blue piece I mounted them on. My skills were waking up and I was getting into a groove.

The third piece was an attempt to challenge myself a bit and add an element of color blocking to the background. I selected my four squares, decided what colors to make the background and then pieced the squares with some hand dyes. Just for interest I made the focal area offset and tried some more interesting quilting in the larger solid areas.

Okay, now I was getting somewhere. I was in a bit of a groove. I had overcome inertia and I was seeing the boring little pieced squares as possibilities rather than something I did to occupy time. I collected nine pieced squares that had no red in them. Added red where I wanted it, quilted, added beads and mounted them on a piece of hand dyed black with teal undertones. Interesting.

With absolutely no commitment to making anything spectacular, I started just rearranging the blocks on the design wall to see what would spark an idea. In this piece, I lined up the red, which offset the blocks. I added offset color blocking and some stripes and patterns just to see what would land with me visually. Looking back at this I see that I was incorporating what I did in piece number 3 and finding a way to push it forward. My collection of hand dyes was coming in handy.

I had used the blocks in a row, bordered row, block, offset block and offset row. Now what? Running out of ideas, I decided to cut some in half. After all, I was not committed to making anything in particular and I still had several unused blocks from my original forty-one.

This next piece I titled “Totem” with a subtitle “For the Sky and Sea”. The others are untitled at the time of this writing. A careful observation will reveal the blocks cut in half and two blocks cut into quarters, one on the top and one on the bottom. Some waxed linen, turquoise and stone beads and a background to mount it on. This piece also revisited something I’ve done before, raw edge finish with a painted edge. I was well on my way to seeing the end of my forty-one squares while also ramping up my creative energy.

The cutting table was a pile of half blocks, quarter blocks, random scraps from the hand dyed backgrounds and one ribbon that had been wrapped around the new towels I just bought. Could this be where it ends? Do these little cast offs go in the trash? I had nothing to lose and clearly, no attachment to these orphaned half siblings. I could have stopped. No one was looking over my shoulder. But, as I learned long ago, to finish what you start has value. It builds your resilience, perseverance and, dare I say, your character as someone who completes what they start. This sounds so grandiose as I write this now but, looking back at how far I’ve come, it is these small decisions that have gotten me here. Not some monumental accomplishment. Just. Small. Choices.

The final piece in the series includes all the rest of the blocks plus some table scraps and one piece of that ribbon. Along with the hand dyed pieces, I was able to create a raw edge, painted finish piece and then mount it on a hand dyed. Similar to the totem piece but a departure from what happened before it. Once I had opened the drawer of beads, I saw no reason to ignore what I had found.

Almost finished but wanted to get this blog post out to you.

You might be wondering where this was all leading me to. I thought about making another bunch of pieced blocks in a different color way. I certainly could have done that. However, while I was getting into the creative flow, another idea arrived. It’s what I am focusing my creative energy on next. Not entirely sure where it’s going to take me but, happy to go on the journey.

What have you made that you enjoyed? Did you like it so much you would repeat it? If you have found your groove and it feels fresh, keep it going. My caution to you however, is that the groove should be exciting. If it gets redundant, uninspiring or kills your motivation, you’ve worn your groove into a rut. Don’t get stuck there. Climb out, try something new, take the path less traveled. Better yet, go down a road you’ve never gone down before. Like my 41 little experiments, it has brought me someplace I never would have found otherwise. Stay tuned and I’ll share it with you when I get a little farther down the creative path.

Thanks for reading all the way to the end of this very long post. I appreciate it and I hope it inspires you in some way to look at what you do and get uncomfortable trying something new. Where it leads - you’ll never know unless you go.