Work can only be universal if it is rooted in a part of its creator which is most privately and particularly himself. — Tyrone Guthrie (theater director and founder of the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario)

So here are three photos and a bit of explanation.

First, this was what I carried around in my camera bag during the long stretch of not-much-happening-quiltwise. Sort of a security blanket to remind me that it would be ok. Maybe a little nudge. I don’t know. I do know that I took it out, smoothed it a bit and pinned it to my wall and was gladdened by it. I still like it. Even better.

Second, the up close view of the blue and yellow quilt with pins yesterday being gotten ready for quilting. I think I have satisfied all the ritualized preparations for getting to the actual quilting, up to and including cleaning the sewing machine table and the sewing machine itself. I suppose I could wind a couple of bobbins before I start. It’s always time to start when you wish that the oiling and cleaning were done already. Yes, it’s time.

Third and lastly, a thought: when you work with a gazillion little squares you need to have a back up plan just in case it all falls off the wall. My back up plan is to take one square from each horizontal row, stack them up in order and pin them and then do the same for the vertical. This keeps a record of what was there and would help reconstruct it if needed. I think over time it could be a nice way to look at what went into it, use for color matching, fabric replacement etc.

I have run out of things to do… so I guess there’s nothing else to do but begin.

To encourage this creative process, Dr. Schooler says, it may help if you go jogging, take a walk, do some knitting or just sit around doodling, because relatively undemanding tasks seem to free your mind to wander productively. But you also want to be able to catch yourself at the Eureka moment.

“For creativity you need your mind to wander,” Dr. Schooler says, “but you also need to be able to notice that you’re mind wandering and catch the idea when you have it. If Archimedes had come up with a solution in the bathtub but didn’t notice he’d had the idea, what good would it have done him?”

Nice article about how the process works and how it is studied. I particularly liked this part – if you don’t snap to when the idea comes about, what’s the point?

I cannot give you a formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure-which is: Try to please everybody. — Herbert Bayard Swope