HAPPY BIRTHDAY - it's Canada Day. We're 149 years old and moving toward our 150th celebration next year. It's one of those significant, taking stock, see how we're doing, kind of numbers. I know not everyone thinks this way but, personally, these moments of reflection are good... especially if they help me get where I want to go.
Playing the movie... We act as if the present is all there is; we forget that the future is going to come either way. It's not an option. The question is what do you want your life to look like on that day? The "movie" is not optional but the where the plotline goes is. - Henry Cloud, 9 Things You Simply Must Do to Succeed in Love and Life.
My study this week talked about playing the moving which means to take a good look at our decisions and actions and play them forward to see the positive or negative outcomes and decide if that's what we actually want in our lives. Some things just don't go together like spending all our money now and having a financially secure retirement or eating chips and chocolate and being healthy. Really seeing the inevitable outcome can motivate us to make the changes needed in the now to have the benefits wanted later.
When I moved here, I joined two knitting groups and I'm really enjoying the friends I've made and well as the opportunities to get out and socialize. It keeps me from being too much of a hermit. I always seem to have two projects on the go - one suitable for knitting in public and one that's a bit more complicated for at home. This week, I worked on mittens using Red Heart's free Mittens for All pattern. It's totally out of season to be knitting warm fuzzy mittens at the end of June but they're great for not concentrating too hard. I knit two at a time on two circular needles so when I was done, I was done. YES YES!
I'm working on another knitting bag and this one is definitely for me. LOL - it told me so and I'm patting it which is always a good sign. The bag started with the same quilted strip but has gone in a totally different direction than the first one. I cut the strip into four equal lengths and then zigzagged them together by butting the edges.
For the top edges and sides, I recycled some soft denim from an old pair of jeans by layering it with backing and batting and quilting in either long channels (side) or a grid pattern (top). Strips of denim were used to cover the joins between the sections and appliqued in place with lime thread.
The black and lime batik used for the lining and for an accent strip is the very last bits of my favourite fabric. My last knitting bag is almost fifteen years old and still in such great condition that its new owner should get at least that much time again so... if this bag is going to be with me forever... it may as well incorporate my favourite fabric rather than holding it precious and never using it.
Getting to those projects that have been waiting a while - like the ones in the Bits & Pieces of Potential Boxes that I'm now working through - and using special fabrics rather than holding them precious are parts of the movie I'm playing forward. There are no guarantees of longevity or good health in life nor even of having our stash for as long as we anticipate. Fires and floods do happen. I never got around to it and now it's gone is not a regret I want to have. What about you?
Talk soon - Myrna
Grateful - living in a wonderful country