moving forward--one block at a time

Now it is not that I have been lazy during the first week of the New Year. No, I have been going into the studio every day working on orders, making potholders and placemats, pillows and purses. Work that I know will sell. Help pay for the rent of my new studio space. Keep me in my booth at the Baltimore Craft Show--yikes, that is less than two months away. February 24-26.

No, I have been working hard. Though I feel like I am standing in place. Swimming against the current.

Each morning as I wake up I think of the new quilts that I want to make. The ones that I am curious about. How will they work? How can I push my art to show something new and unknown. Work that I want to study in my studio after it is done. I know I need it. After all, I did sell  capturing the sky and need a similar piece.

Something has been holding me back. It is so much easier to make a collection of potholders. I know they will work. Short, sweet and simple. A success. Am I afraid that the new quilt will not work? Am I just tired? How understandable. I have been going non-stop for the last five months after all. I did need a break--if only to make potholders.

Still I must do more.  After all, I did not spend all this time and energy re-establishing my studio just to make potholders, did I? Somewhere I must find the energy to start a new quilt.

I must stop procrastinating. Regain my focus. I read on the internet a blog post on Seven Ways to Quit Procrastinating. Check it out HERE.   I decide I must just take the plunge. I can see the quilt in my mind. The colors--such a solid strong blue that radiates sky and promise. Different from capturing the sky--but the next in a series. I must just start. Here goes. Make that first block--that is easy.

So lonely it looks up there, doesn't it? Just a small little statement of hope. OK--I can do it. Make  a row. See what happens. Now I can make more potholders.

Nice color. Not as strong as I might want. But I must keep going. Will more blocks--another row--add to the color I want. I keep focusing on the idea. The concept of a dark sky with a few trees lit in the setting sun. I want to capture that light.

Yes, this is getting better? Feel good to just start doesn't it? Now to make another row--and another. Make what I know.  Today at least one more row--maybe two more. Then add the zing. That part that I can see in my mind but I am not sure how it will work.  I will have to experiment and try. Will it work? I see the next quilt already in my mind's eye. But I must finish this one first. Get this quilt to the point where it has its own momentum. Pulls me forward.  Becomes the focus of my days in the studio. Where the potholders and placemats become the things I make when I need to study the quilt.  Isn't that their rightful place? Then I can start the next one? Isn't that the trick to getting the energy to move forward?

What do you think? How do you get started? Where does your momentum come from? Any hints?