Some Days…
I just need to quilt. You know, when the brain completely freezes over and there’s a layer of low-lying clouds over the top of it? Some days are just like that–for me, anyway. I know enough to know that I’m not going to get any original thoughts through the ice layer and cloud cover, kind of like how the planes don’t fly when the conditions aren’t just right… These are the days that I know I just need to quilt.
The recent addition of an APQS Millennium to my studio has afforded me the opportunity to do this whenever the need arises, and I am grateful. But these machines have no conscience. They will go wherever they are sent, and stitch the whole time. So it forces me to think, if just a little bit, making very small 
decisions about which way to go to fill this place or that. This much brain activity I seem to be able to handle and the exercise seems to get me out of the funk. I can’t follow a pantograph for all the money in the world, so I’m on my own in that regard, and it’s better that way, trust me! The lack of a pattern enables me to focus only on making a smooth, pleasing line, instead of making one just like the pattern.
The rhythm of the machine making little swirlies and whatnot’s is very soothing to me. The standing gives be a break from hunching over the computer or sewing machine, and makes my back happy. AND, I can listen to really loud music with a great excuse! At the end of the day, I’ve completed a top that’s been lying around for a couple years and begun to make friends with my new machine. Life is good!
About the Author: Cheryl Malkowski
I have a perfect life--designing quilts, writing books and letting the dog in and out of my home studio in southern Oregon. I'm addicted to color and will go out of my way to avoid hand work.
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