Before we get started...

Piecing a mosaic in Fez
source: me

This past week I have been a woman possessed.

I spent hours scouring the internet for quilting tutorials and inspiration. I re-read my two quilting books.  (Neither of which actually provides any advice on how to quilt.) I searched for more books on the narratives attached to quilting. I scribbled a bunch of random thoughts about how to start.  I wrote in my journal about some interesting contradictions in my approach to quilting. I ordered (and received) my rotary cutter, mat and measuring tool.  I braved the Olympic crowds to scour my local craft market for fabric. (You know, to practice with.  I don't want to screw up the ratty t-shirts and corduroys and sarongs I have been storing for years for just this purpose.) I did everything I could...to not start quilting.

Maybe I have been a woman procrastinating.

Piecing the sea
source

I feel the dormant academic coming to life in a very particular, hording references-formulating questions-crafting methodology way.  I can't tell if it's a good thing or not.  As I am enjoying it, I am going with good.  I guess after seven years of postgraduate study, I am hardwired to craft the framing of a project before just jumping in.  Although, to be fair, I didn't do a whole hell of a lot of framing before I jumped into the circus.  My entire first year of my PhD program was figuring out how to convince a university to finance my running away with a circus for six months.  Time well-spent seeing as they not only paid me to go, they purchased a motorhome for me as well.  But that is another story, for another time.

The story of this week has been one of mental preparation and exploration.  I'm channeling my ethnographic skills and observing the culture.  I'm picking up on lingo and trends.  I'm mentally cataloging patterns and demographics.  I'm trying to see where, and how, and if, I fit into quilting.  What will my approach be?  How do I access the vast and varied knowledge of quilting?

From what I can gather, based on my week of observation, the best introduction to quilting...is to just start cutting.

Go forth and slice and piece and see what happens.  Enough with the thinking.  Start with the doing.