FMQ Friday – Go with the Flow

Lol. Life is a total paradox. I’m struck by how funny this is today because I agonized for days over whether to be open about my disappointed feelings about Express Your Love. What will people think? Will everyone hate me now?

In the end, as I have found time and time again, being open and honest and going with the flow that feels most natural and right is…well…right! Thanks a bunch to all your support and kind words as it wasn’t the easiest thing to be honest about.

Today is FMQ Friday and I have to admit that my flow has a limited range between the couch and bathroom thanks to an interminable stomach bug that is making me crazy in more ways than one.

To say it simply: I’m not a person that takes to bed rest easily. I can count 4 times in my life I have been bed ridden for days on end, and every single time, I found some form of stitch work in my hands.

I don’t naturally do a lot of hand work these days, and sitting here, forced to be still and patient, I’m wondering if I should start making time for a bit of hand work, even just 10 minutes, in my daily life. Right now it’s more “fits and spurts” and that’s no way to really enjoy a task, always picking up and dropping it and picking it up again.

There is something simple and healing is the act of stitching thread through cloth, or knitting yarn into a sock. It’s not necessarily the end result – the sock, the quilt, the embroidery, but the act itself can be soothing.

For me, it stops the endless munch of my brain espousing on all the stuff I “could” be doing if only I wasn’t sick. Somehow having something in my hands makes it easier to just be still and stop the endless circle of questioning of WHEN I will be well again and WHY did this have to happen RIGHT NOW and isn’t this SO UNFAIR!

As luck would have it, I had prepared this little single page version (8 x 10 inches) of Express Your Love marked on beading interfacing called Lacy’s Stiff Stuff back before my stomach began flowing in reverse.

I’d originally created this as a project far in advance to work on when Josh and I drive to Paducah for the AQS show in April. Just having it prepared and ready to go has made it so easy to pull out some beads and begin stitching over the surface. Earlier this week I’d been keeping my promise to use materials I’d been hording, which is where the pretty heart shape comes from – epoxy Crystal Clay embedded with crystal chatons.

Of course, there are so many other projects I could pull, but this one seems right today. I have no idea where this project is going to go, but it’s definitely making me feel better to have something pretty in my hands to work on and keep my flow with this goddess moving.

So what are you working on today? Have you free motion quilted something beautiful? Please share!

Simple rules for the FMQ Friday link up:

1. Link up with a post that features something about Free Motion Quilting (FMQ).
2. Somewhere in your post, you must link back here, or you can just post the FMQF button in your sidebar.
3. Comment on at least a few of the other FMQF links. Share your love of free motion quilting and make this weekly link up a fun way to connect!

Let’s make something beautiful today!

Leah