Birthing Creative Ideas

I go through these cycles every so often where I have an idea gestating in my brain, and waiting for that idea to develop and be born is a bit uncomfortable. Even writing about it is difficult. It’s a process of researching and accumulating bits of knowledge and hoping that my brain will synthesize something coherent out of those bits. The good thing is that I have learned to recognize the process when it’s happening, and I have learned to sit with the discomfort, even if I don’t enjoy it. If I had my druthers, I would lock myself in my sewing room and do nothing but work on that idea for hours—or days—on end. Unfortunately, the realities of daily life intrude. People need to eat.

I was going to go to town first thing yesterday morning. I wanted to be home by late morning so I could spend the rest of the day working on this brain worm. Just as I was getting ready to leave, I got a shipment notification from FedEx for a delivery I needed to be here to meet. They could only give me a general idea of the time, which was anywhere from 10 am until 2:30 pm. Lovely. I rearranged the schedule and decided I would go to town after the delivery arrived.

Nothing annoys me more than to get into a big project and be interrupted, which means that if I don’t know how much time I will have to work on something, I won’t even start. I looked at the list of smaller projects that needed to be done.

I paid bills and did construction company paperwork.

I cut the lining for the Lou Raincoat:

I still haven’t decided on interfacing. Construction begins with making the pockets, so I might interface those—the pattern calls for it—and see what I think.

I was going to sandwich and baste the Kaffe Fassett quilt top from last fall’s workshop but I didn’t have batting, so that had to be postponed.

I packed for my trip.

One of our neighbors stopped by for eggs and wanted to visit for a bit.

I collected and began organizing my class supplies for my serger class on Monday. That was a good excuse to find all my decorative threads and sort them. I have thread storage bins, but thread gets taken out and used for various projects or it goes to a class and doesn’t get put back where it belongs. I also needed to re-acquaint myself with the pattern and decide how I want to structure the class.

Finally, around 1:00 pm, FedEx showed up. We got everything sorted and I headed to town. There is a reason I run my errands early in the morning, before the zombie hordes come out. The traffic was insane. The people were insane—most of them wandering around with their noses in their phones, not paying attention to what was happening around them. I know I am being uncharitable, but people need to stop behaving as though they are the only ones on the planet.

It was almost 4:30 pm by the time I got home. I passed the husband on the way; he was heading over to lay out the foundation for the new fire hall and then attend the fire department business meeting. Our fire district is building a new (much needed) station and it was very important to our trustees and chief not to have to ask for a tax levy from the residents. The supporting association has been raising money for the station over the past several years. Community members are donating when and where they can. One gentleman donated the excavation services. The husband is donating his time and labor to do the foundation, although our employees will be paid for their work.

I made dinner and sat down to research serger techniques in a few of my reference books.

The brain worm is going to have to gestate for a few more days. I won’t have time to work on it again until Tuesday.