Giving myself Permission to Play

Too frequently I tell myself that I cannot start a new project because I have too many others in progress.

What I find, when I do that, is that not only do I not play with new ideas or experiment with different techniques but I also don't work on the projects I think I need to finish.

That results in a frustrated me, and I start to think I need to bag this entire quilting/sewing thing and take up something different like woodworking.  Or Gainful Employment.

Today I decided to give myself permission to play.  

There are two techniques that I want to work with more than any others...so I flipped a coin and decided that Straight Lines, a technique I found on the blog Art With A Needle by Kathleen Loomis.

I've experimented with it before, more than a year ago, and had such a good time with it that I"m excited to try it again.

(It will be a welcome break from my Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt!)

Here is a reminder of what I did last time I used this technique:

I was Surprised at how soft the fabric remained.  I thought with all the intersections and seams that it might end up a very stiff piece, but I was wrong.

Today's work/play started with black Kona and this black/white/grey fabric.

After a few slices and insertions:

(bobbin to show scale of strips)

And then I worked my way toward this:

I like the way the pattern of the fabric distorts some of the lines and intersections.

I still have some work to do .  I have several more panels cut that I want to use this technique on.

S