One Small Step?

It has been more than ten years now since I subscribed to a BOM called "Folk Art Cats."  I thought it to be an amazing quilt.  I still do.

I completed one block.  That took about three months.  There was some bad language involved.  I cut out the pieces for a second block.  I put the whole thing away.  Far away.

. . .

This morning I was in e-conversation with altarego, someone I "met" through kim and I don't remember how I met her.  Suffice it to say that my life is far richer for "knowing" the two of them.  But I digress.

Anne and I were talking about a goal of hers, and she told me what was getting in the way of her making further progress.  A light bulb moment for me -- I realized that for any kind of a goal or ambition that is stuck, to get unstuck, a person has to figure out what is sticking.  What is the snag.

I tried to think of a personal example and -- unwelcome -- those blasted Folk Art Cats came to mind.  The snag that has kept me for more than ten years from getting on with the project is the incredible complexity of the blocks.

I know, from my journey to and through seminary and from the What Was I Thinking quilt, that any big goal needs to be broken into small and sometimes smaller steps or pieces.

A few months ago, when we were getting ready to move Joe's office into the lower level, I went through all of my quilt projects and fabric and held a huge purge.  There were things that I knew I would never finish; I had lost all interest in them.  At this point, just three months later, I can't even remember what most of them were.

The Folk Art Cats were not in the giveaway pile.  I must have thought there was still a possibility that I could finish the project in this lifetime.

This morning I trolled the internet looking for photos of Folk Art Cats quilts that others had finished.  I found one.  One.  Clearly, wiser people that I had the sense not to buy that BOM!  Or there are cat parts languishing in boxes in many homes across the country (not a pleasant thought when taken literally).  [Bo was sitting on his cat perch soaking up the sun and just now leaped down and fled the room.  I'm exuding some kind of bad karma just thinking these thoughts.]

So.  Today I am going to go dig out that box one more time.  I will see if I can break it down into small components and if I can bring myself to take one small step.  And then another.  Or think seriously about whether this is something that I really do want to make and, if not, offer it to someone who is either more skillful, more determined, or more foolish than I am.

Oh, and if you didn't click the link to Altar Ego's blog above, click here to read her post for today.  It stopped me in my tracks.