Taking time to learn

>I am consumed with the need to finish work. I race through projects,
> driving until I get it finally quilted, bound, labeled and -- usually
> -- out the door. Or folded and put away. But I'm increasingly not too
> happy with the results. I can follow many patterns. Although I don't
> usually. I always have to change something. Don't get me started on
> recipes........ I have learned to avoid the kinds of quilts that
> frustrate me and that I really will not spend time learning to do
> properly. I love the kind of quilt filled with tiny pieces of exactly
> the same sized and shaped fabric in varying colors that produces a
> breath taking geometric arrangement when it's all together. I can't
> do that. So I'm moving on to something else.
> After a number of conversations with others, I went back to the large
> box of books I inherited from my friend in December. Some I had
> already pulled out but most were just a jumble. I found "Color and
> Composition" by Katie Pasquini Masopust and Brett Barker. It's an
> incredible book that talks about waking up your right brain. Not that
> my left brain is truly awake, abut that's another book.
> The book is filled with exercises and it says at the outset that if
> you don't intend to do the exercises, just put the book down as it
> won't do you any good. I never do the exercises. I look at the pretty
> pictures. This time I'm going to do it differently. This time I'm
> going to put all my projects ina little box and I'm going to do
> nothing but the exercises in this book for a while. I want to be
> better. I want to be more creative. I really want to find MY way and
> stop copying others. And I want to be able to really make what I see
> in my head.
> So I'm going to take some time out to learn. Maybe it won't do a
> darned thing to help me. But I don't think it can hurt. The tablecloth
> can wait. My sister's wallhanging can wait. My husband's coworker-s
> wife's hug quilt can wait. I'm going to just learn for a while. Should
> have done that at the start instead of jumping into the middle of this
> thing. Well.... no time like the present.
> I'll show you the exercises along the way if you want, if they make
> sense.
> Sunny

> Sunny, it WILL help you.
> One of the things I discovered as a piano teacher is that for the first 5
> or 6 years of our lives we are incredibly right-brained and creative. Am
> I right? Just observe kids that age. Then they start 12 - 16 or more
> years of school where they are more and more right-brain repressed and
> left-brain educated. And don't even get ME started on that whole issue.
> I'll just say this - - folks, we need BOTH sides of our brains to be
> healthy fulfilled self-expressive individials. But our current education
> system allows for next to none of THAT. So by the time we are adults, our
> right brain is really and truly extremely drowsy.
> I stand up and applaud your commitment to strengthen that right brain.
> .....stepping off soap box, and letting Sunny spend some time with her
> book now....
> BTW, Sunny, I would love to know, in private emails, what those exercises
> are. Being a pianist, and teaching others to quilt and play piano, I'm
> sure I can improvise and find useful ways for many of those things. What
> a great book that sounds like. I'd buy it but, well - just read the
> Batiks Plus thread and you will understand... LOL
> Karen, Queen of Squishies
> --
> and when you get the chance
> to sit it out or dance.......
> I hope you dance
>>I am consumed with the need to finish work. I race through projects,
>> driving until I get it finally quilted, bound, labeled and -- usually
>> -- out the door. Or folded and put away. But I'm increasingly not too
>> happy with the results. I can follow many patterns. Although I don't
>> usually. I always have to change something. Don't get me started on
>> recipes........ I have learned to avoid the kinds of quilts that
>> frustrate me and that I really will not spend time learning to do
>> properly. I love the kind of quilt filled with tiny pieces of exactly
>> the same sized and shaped fabric in varying colors that produces a
>> breath taking geometric arrangement when it's all together. I can't
>> do that. So I'm moving on to something else.
>> After a number of conversations with others, I went back to the large
>> box of books I inherited from my friend in December. Some I had
>> already pulled out but most were just a jumble. I found "Color and
>> Composition" by Katie Pasquini Masopust and Brett Barker. It's an
>> incredible book that talks about waking up your right brain. Not that
>> my left brain is truly awake, abut that's another book.
>> The book is filled with exercises and it says at the outset that if
>> you don't intend to do the exercises, just put the book down as it
>> won't do you any good. I never do the exercises. I look at the pretty
>> pictures. This time I'm going to do it differently. This time I'm
>> going to put all my projects ina little box and I'm going to do
>> nothing but the exercises in this book for a while. I want to be
>> better. I want to be more creative. I really want to find MY way and
>> stop copying others. And I want to be able to really make what I see
>> in my head.
>> So I'm going to take some time out to learn. Maybe it won't do a
>> darned thing to help me. But I don't think it can hurt. The tablecloth
>> can wait. My sister's wallhanging can wait. My husband's coworker-s
>> wife's hug quilt can wait. I'm going to just learn for a while. Should
>> have done that at the start instead of jumping into the middle of this
>> thing. Well.... no time like the present.
>> I'll show you the exercises along the way if you want, if they make
>> sense.
>> Sunny
>

> Me too -- I'd love to know what the exercises are. I am
> SO left brained I sometimes list when I stand up!
> I'd love to wake up a little of the other side!

> "Karen, Queen of Squishies" wrote...
>> Sunny, it WILL help you.
<snipped>
>> BTW, Sunny, I would love to know, in private emails, what
>> those exercises are.

but the way I do it is definitely not organized and logical. <BG> I'll