A lot of people like to decide on a ‘word’ each year to help keep them focused on a particular goal.  I have decided to join in the fun this year and to celebrate my word – I made a quilt! My word is:

Balance

When I get in to something it seems to consume my life.  A few years ago I managed to lose a significant amount of weight … but that’s all I did.  I was at the gym almost everyday and I barely took any time to create.  Lately I’ve been consumed with quilting and creating and my health has gone by the wayside.  This year my goal is to find a balance between the two.  I want to still create but I need to put my health back on the spectrum as well.Not only do I have to get my quilting world and my health in balance, but let’s not forget the family and orchard elements of my life as well.  The quilt I made is a symbol of all those things.  I used Inktense colored pencils to create a little art quilt that I’m hanging right above my work station.  Of course – there is the word ‘balance’ on it.  The tree in the quilt is a symbol of balance (and of course it works well since I have an apple orchard).  I added other little images throughout – thread and a quilt (quilting world), scales (balance), an apple (orchard), heart (love/family), barbell (health) That squiggley thing represents my family and the arrows represent the ups and downs life brings … like sick kiddo’s when that’s the last thing you need! I messed up quilting the tree ‘leaves’ above and I honestly considered ripping it out to fix it (which is weird because I never usually worry about things like that).  But I decided against it because I like that it is a mistake – I’m sure on my journey to balance I will loose my way but as you can see in the rest of the leaves – I found my way back. To border my drawing – I took little strips of fabric that I saved from squaring up strips.  I stitched these down randomly with a black zigzag stitch.  I love how it created a nest around the quilt and gave a wonky way of balancing it out.  Also – you can still see some of the white fabric the quilt started with which represents the beginning of the journey.  Do you have a word for 2015?