by Dayle M: PATIENCE AND PERSISTANCE GOES A LONG WAY!

Dayle of Curlie Girlie Art shares the story of Her Quilt Block for Kelly Rae Roberts.
An attribute I’ve known I possessed since 5th grade is patience.  Our class was assigned a very simple map project; we had to color and cut out all the US states and glue them to a poster board – sounds easy right?  I proudly colored all my states – making sure that any of them connecting were not the same color, cut out all my states and began gluing.  I started with Washington State and worked my way east.  Sure enough when I reached the northeast states…they were all falling off the board. I had miss judged just how big the US was.  So I had to pull off all the states and start over.  This process repeated itself 3 times before I was able to fit all my states onto that poster board.  My poor tattered map of the USA; it looked pretty rough. I thought for sure by the looks of this project I would not be getting an A.



Then came a childhood moment I will never forget; my tattered and poor looking poster board was returned with a BIG FAT A+!  My teacher later came up to me and told me she was so proud of my project – she said “You know what you showed me with this project?  You showed me that you had determination and patience.”  I thought and thought about what she said to me and all the self doubt and shame I had over this project was washed away and all I felt was pride.
This is the same sort of pride I felt recently after working on a quilt square for a Baby Quilt my fellow Flying Lesson classmates are putting together for Kelly Rea Roberts.  When this project was announced by Sonya I knew right away I wanted to be a part of this.  I wanted to help celebrate the wonderful blessing that is soon coming Kelly’s way.  I wanted to be a part of this big thank you to Kelly for helping bring inspiration into my life in so many ways.  
Now I wanted to be a part of making this quilt square even though…. I have never made a quilt square in my life and I have had a sewing machine in my home for 2 years that I have never touched!  Crazy, right?
I collected materials and pulled out my sewing machine manual.  I was determined to tackle this fear of mine.  Three frustrated days later I had threaded the machine and ruined about 8 squares of material.  I stepped back assessed and realized I needed to work with my current abilities.  I decided to hand sew this block.  I calmed down and pulled out my grandmas sewing box and began sewing.  It ended up being a peaceful and very enjoyable process.  So call it patience, determination or as my husband would say my stubbornness – my quilt square was complete.  I picked the materials with care, added little hearts in tribute to Kelly and sewed this little square with love.  As I stared at this finished square all the shame I had over this project and the frustration of not being able to tackle that sewing machine was washed away and all I felt was pride.
“Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them - every day begin the task anew.”  Saint Francis de Sales French saint & bishop of Geneva (1567 - 1622) 
So my creative friends – I know we all run into obstacles within this creative journey we are taking. 
Don’t ever lose your courage; you might just surprise yourself!

Dayle Micoff – Curlie Girlie Art

Comments

  1. what a cool teacher! and what a cool moment of realization!

    my grandmother was a full time quilter, so i know it's more about the love than the technique that goes into making a fabulous quilt!

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