There are a lot of decisions that need to be made when making a quilt. Everything from the pattern to the colors to how it is quilted is a choice to be made and every choice affects the overall product. In fact, a major part of the art of quilt making is the art of decision making. Some people with some projects can make decisions quite easily. There are in the shop and out again with the right fabric in a matter of minutes. Other can take hours. They spread out every possible fabric on the tables and ask the opinions of everyone in the shop before finally deciding.
Throughout the course of the day, all of us make dozens, if
not hundreds of decisions. Should I have
pancakes or cereal for breakfast? Should I go down 5th street or 4th
street to get to work? Should I talk to the person behind me in line at the
store or remain silent? Most of these
are not earth shattering, life altering decisions, but like the quilt, they affect
the overall product of our lives. They form
our lives like the blocks and squares of fabric form a quilt.
There are other decisions that are, or at least seem to be,
earth shattering, life altering decisions, decisions that feel like they could
tear a person in two. What career do I
want? Should I really marry that person?
Do I attend a school that’s across the country that offers a new life
and adventure in that great unknown or do I choose a school that is closer to
the home and family I know and love? Try
as we might, these decisions cannot be made simply through deliberation and
council. Not that these tools aren’t
helpful, but with these decisions, corny as it sounds, we must follow our
hearts.
Had I followed logic, I may have become an engineer. It has good pay and job security and utilized
many of the same skills that I employ now with quilting like geometry and
creativity. With the right education and
training, I may have been quite successful in that field, but I didn’t think I
would enjoy building bridges and designing submarines as I do building stories
and designing patterns. So the decision
was made, for better or worse or, more likely, both. The facts and statistics can only bring you
so far when it comes to these decisions.
In the end, we have to decide what we really want, what will make us
really happy. Like the quilts we sew,
the decisions we make in our lives will make the difference, will make it
unique, will make it beautiful.
