Build Resilience by Stitching Slowly Through the Year

Last week I was pondering resilience, especially how to increase resilience during stressful times. Resilience is not a fixed state. We can learn to be more resilient and can practice resilience throughout our lives. I asked my husband if he had read anything about resilience or received any resources from his employer. He handed me his copy of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth. Yes, but I was thinking about the day-to-day stuff … not what it takes to achieve great things. How do we daily bounce back and show up for the little things, like deciding what to cook for supper?

Great minds think alike, or as we like to say, two knuckleheads are better than one. As we kept talking about resilience, we both recalled the quote from Chuck Swindoll: “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” Is resilience simply our reaction to what happens in life? Some days fatigue wins and we react poorly. Other days we have the energy to bounce back from the tough things and thrive.

Life is 10% what happens to you and 90$ how you react to it. Charles R Swindoll

Build Resilience in Small Ways

After a bit of Google research, I found these suggestions:

  • Know when to stop, rest, and replenish your inner resources. Choose to do the things over which you have control: eat some healthy food, take a nap, exercise in a way that brings you joy.
  • Have a sense of purpose. For me, that’s remembering the basic truth that I was created to love God and to love people. When there are so many things competing for my attention and allegiance, I can pause and ask if it aligns with my purpose.
  • Mentally detach from stressors by shifting your focus on a hobby. Often I feel guilty for indulging in things that bring me pleasure, like reading a book or sewing seams of a quilt. I see the pile of laundry to fold and it’s hard to leave it there simply because I want a break. Take the break! Replenish yourself so that later you can tackle tasks with renewed vigor.
  • Make goals for the future — fun goals. I created a list of quilts I would like to make this year and none of them have a deadline. The goal is simply to start them when the time feels right.

Bite-Sized Goals: Sherri McConnell’s Block of the Month

Sherri from A Quilting Life wrote a post about her free annual block of the month (BOM) quilts, and here’s the post with her January 2022 block. I printed all of her free patterns last year and filed them away, and this year I knew I wanted to sew along. Now I can look forward to a new pattern release each month and take a break from my routine to make it. Here’s Miss January and a sampling of my fabrics!

Red White and Blue quilt fabric and block

Longer-Term Goals

Sherri’s Fall Dash pattern is similar to her 2022 BOM quilt. There are twelve churn dash blocks that frame pumpkins and leaves. I might start sewing this quilt as a companion BOM quilt just to break up the sewing time into manageable spurts. I purchased Basic Grey Cider fabrics plus a few other Moda designers’ orange prints to make this quilt. All those beautiful blues will form the border and sashing strips of the quilt.

Fall Dash quilt pattern and fabric

Another relaxed quilt along I’m enjoying is a Postcard from Sweden with Sandra. So far I have cut and organized all my half-square triangles into 36 color-coded bags and stitched my first block. I came across a mini version of this same quilt while scrolling through Instagram. It’s amazing! Each block measures one square inch.

Organization
Block 1
Mini Postcard from Sweden

Play Zone: Sewing Without a Purpose

My friend Wendy wrote a great tutorial for stitching improv wavy strips. After reading her blog post, I actually left all my clean laundry in a big heap on a bed just so I could play with fabric. The photos below show my freehand cuts and final piece. Since this was merely for experimentation, I don’t have plans to use this crazy bit of improv (unless I hide it inside a pouch or bag). I had so much fun learning a new technique right away rather than waiting until I “had the time.”

wavy improv quilt blocks

First Chaos Then Calm

Ironically, I create a lot of my own stress. Since we moved into our house way back in September 2020, I have moved my sewing room from one room to another, up and down stairs multiple times, and packed and unpacked while skilled workers finished our basement. Hopefully, today marks the end of all this upheaval because an Amish man is installing new cabinets, drawers, shelves, and a window seat in my sewing room. It looked like this before Eli arrived this morning, and the work will be done later this afternoon. Yes, there will be a reveal party!

sewing room in transition
Cupboards, shelves, and a window seat will frame my view of our backyard.

Right now I need to calm the crazy and just decide what I’m going to cook for supper. Then I can start finding a home for all my favorite things. This space is a gift, and I plan to enjoy it!

I hope I’ve inspired you to consider how you can become more resilient.

Joyfully,

Tracie