Stop and Breathe

When my younger daughter went away to school this year, and my husband and I were “empty nesters” for the first time in over 20 years, I decided that I wanted to take up quilting.

Two of my good friends are quilters and they often talked about how much they enjoyed it.

I took my first quilting class in November and made a quilt for my youngest. Then in December, I made a quilt for my eldest. In January I made a quilt for my niece and in February I made a quilt for my sister-in-law. I have two more quilts planned to do next. You could say that I am addicted!

What I love about quilting is that it gives me a chance to sit at the sewing machine and just concentrate on sewing a straight line. Doing this work clears my mind.

I also love the creative part of quilting when I am in the fabric store choosing fabrics.  Then, although my mind is whirring with what will go with what, I don’t think about anything else.

When I was younger I was a runner and I loved the times when all thoughts would disappear from my mind and the only things I concentrated on were my breathing and my feet hitting the ground.

I have been swamped with work lately and quilting in my spare time has been a joy and a needed distraction. I am curious, what do you do to stop thinking and just be?

Photo credit iStockphoto