In the Zone: An Ultimate To-Do List

 

Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman gave us a bittersweet look at the human urge to fulfill certain dreams before death in the 2007 movie The Bucket List. And at least some of their goals were pretty much what you think two guys–and Hollywood–would come up with. (Some cancer patient advocates apparently later complained about the movie, saying it cheapened end-of-life issues. Perhaps, but if it made people think a bit, that’s priceless.)

Call me biased, but I think most quilters would have some pretty interesting pre-mortality to-do’s. Visiting International Quilt Festival has got to be on tons of quilters’ lists. Making a Dear Jane probably ranks right up there, too. (Although for some of us, that might be what causes our demise.)

When you dig past the obvious and into the highly personal, though, there are bound to be some surprises. You get to know a little bit more about yourself as a quilter, and that’s worth the brain drain, whether you’ve been quilting 10 years or 10 months. (P.S. Things change, so creating a quilter’s bucket list is a great virtual growth chart.)

In preparing this little thought piece, I asked my GenQ colleagues for a few items on their personal quilting bucket list. Frankly, after I saw their lists (and you will, too, in a moment), I was a little embarrassed because my own list is, well, shallow. Let’s just say I might be in the running for the GenQ good-time girl title.

Here are a few of the items on my personal Quilter’s Bucket List:

1. See the Queen Lili’uokalani quilt in person in the Iolani Palace in Honolulu.

 (She created this unique quilt to document her 10-month imprisonment in 1895.)

2. See the Jane Austen quilt in person in the Jane Austen’s House Museum in Chawton, Hampshire, UK. (Jane, her mother and her sister Cassandra made the quilt together in the early 1800s.)

3. Go on a week-long sewing retreat in a fabulous place with my sisters and my best buds.

4. Attend quilt shows in Japan, Ireland, England, Eastern Europe and pretty much anywhere interesting to travel. (There’s a theme here.)

5. Repair the worn places in my grandmother’s handpieced Tumbling Blocks quilt.

6. Take a private free motion quilting class from Leah Day.

7.  Make a quilt for a time capsule

8.  See how fabrics are printed

9.  Have a private tour of the National Quilt Museum (archives and all!) in Paducah, Kentucky, with noted quilt historian and q-pundit Barbara Brackman as my guide.

Okay, now that I’ve stood here in my mental and emotional underwear for all to see, I’ll let my fellow GenQ colleagues share the spotlight:

Scott Hansen
1. I have always loved Lone Stars and/or LeMoyne Stars (not exactly sure there is a difference) and I would like to do my own someday.
2. A two fabric quilt….I will probably NEVER make this, but I think the challenge of a quilt from just two fabrics would be a good one for me. Then I would hire a very good quilter OR send it to the Amish for hand quilting. I actually have some cream muslin and an old printed cotton in deep, almost-brick red set aside for one.
3. Circles…..I really avoid them. (Can you tell by my body of work?) VERY seldom seen around here, but I would love to do a Double or Triple Wedding Ring.
These are all very traditional quilts. (Huh?) For someone becoming known for ‘modern’ style, I am still very, very smitten with these concepts….although I am sure for both #1 and # 3 they would be very busy, print-filled, bright quilts….I am thinking orangey/gold solid for the Wedding ring background, and very few solids in the Lone Star.

Megan Dougherty
Bucket list. This is interesting because some of the biggest ones I had on my list (curved piecing, paper piecing, hand applique, machine applique) I’ve done successfully this year. So some of the rest of my list would be:
1. Hand quilting. I have managed to do my own machine quilting on a couple of my quilts by stippling the living daylights out of them. (I don’t do “free motion quilting.” I stipple the living daylights out of things.) But I have not yet attempted hand quilting, though my mom was wonderful at it in her quilting days and gave me many of her supplies, such as a floor stand hoop thingy and books of patterns. But the main reason I want to learn this is not because of her but because one time I got a nasty comment on my blog from someone who said I would probably never be brave enough to try it. So I really need to master it because I have an immature streak a mile wide.
2. Quilt retreat. Someday, when my book of quilting humor is at the top of the New York Times bestseller list for a record number of weeks (it could happen), and I become fabulously wealthy, I will gather up my dearest quilting friends I have made around the country and fly them all someplace really cool for a weekend of quilting and other shenanigans. Mostly shenanigans. I can quilt anytime.
3. Y-seams. I am currently in training for this right now and reading up on all the safety measures necessary for successful y-seaming. I figure with intensive weight training and Zen meditation, plus a really good helmet, I should be ready for my first attempt by September of 2012.

Jake Finch
I’ve done so many wonderful things in my quilting life but what’s so wonderful is that there is so much more that can still be done! Here’s a short list of my wishes:
1. To teach on a quilting cruise.
2. To receive a top award at Houston for one of my quilts.
3. To see Generation Q Magazine go into print and become a hit periodical with a huge circulation.
4. To finish all of my unfinished projects, especially those meant for others.
5. To have my kid love quilting and sewing as much as I do.

Now it’s your turn. Think about what you find remarkable in this kaleidoscopic q-universe, what you’re itching to try or share or experience. (And if it’s Festival, well, okay, fine. But there is so much more.)

Just remember: 1) Start living the list, and 2) People change, so lists can change, too.

Melissa Thompson Maher