Sunday Relaxing - Be Sure to Take that Relaxing Day

So, today is another Sunday. They do come around every seven days. :-)  Today will truly be a resting day for me because I've been quite busy over the past week. Rest is important for anyone, but it's particularly so for someone with fibromyalgia.

I heard about a chocolate festival taking place in Bromont, Quebec this weekend. It's about 90 minutes away or so. I did want to go, but I have to listen to common sense. If I go, I'm sure I'll cross over that line from very tired to fatigued. While being very tired is manageable, being fatigued isn't. So, I'll spend my day relaxing with my new sewing machine, reading, and taking it easy.

I wish I had a hammock. When I was in Mexico a year ago, my favourite activity was "hammocking." Just lying in a hammock and dozing, relaxing, listening to the sounds around me. The ultimate in relaxation, in my book.

It used to be that spending a day doing nothing was considered slothful, a sin. After all, idle hands and all that. But it's been found that true resting, taking time for yourself to be self-indulgent (within reason of course) is good for you. Relaxing helps you refocus, bring your thoughts back to where they can flow and be their own.

Relaxing doesn't mean that you have to nap or sit around doing nothing. Relaxing is what makes you happy, feel re-energized. This could mean playing physical games, going to the park and playing with your children, going for bike rides - anything that is not stressful for you.

I'm not Jewish, but I admire those of the faith who observe the Sabbath. By having a day when they do not do anything considered to be work, by staying away from electronics and the hub-hub of the modern world, they are left with time to pray, reflect, think, spend time with family. They know that they can - and will - do this every week. There has got to be something good for you there. With our 24/7 life, constant connections, many of us don't allow for that real down time.

My busy but fun couple of days

On Friday, I had the privilege of attending a day-long quilting workshop and we learned how to machine-piece a Mariner's Compass. This pattern is considered to be - and is - a difficult piece to make. It's a pattern that is often seen in prize-winning quilts and the onlookers may be heard to say, "wow, I'd love to try making a Mariner's Compass, but it's too hard."

The method I learned was a machine-pieced pattern and I learned it's not really that difficult, it's picky. You need to be very precise to get it right, but once you do get that precision, it works. Aren't so many of things in life like that? We rush through them and get so-so results, but if we take the time to think them through and do them properly, they work out in a much more satisfactory way. The wonderful instructor was Sheila Wintle.

The workshop I attended yesterday was on machine quilting. I don't like to machine quilt. I've been a hard-line hand quilter since I began quilting over 20 years ago. I've learned how to MQ and I have done it for baby quilts, placemats, and so on, but I don't enjoy the process. So, I decided I have the opportunity to learn from one of the best (Wendy Butler Berns), now was the chance. If I learned how to do it properly, maybe I would enjoy it a bit more.

What I learned was, as I said about rushing things - I was rushing things with the machine quilting. My results didn't make me happy before because I was rushing through it. I was equating machine quilting with speed quilting. It doesn't really work like that! So, although I am far from proficient now, at least I have a better idea of what to do and how to do it, and where I was making my worst mistakes.

So, this is why I need my down time today. As much fun as the workshops were, as well as taking tours around the wonderful quilt exhibit, it was tiring.

Relaxing is good. It's not a luxury. It's a must. I hope that everyone gets that chance to relax, if only a few moments, this weekend.

Sunday Relaxation - A Long Weekend

I know the title of this blog post may confuse my US readers. That's because I'm in Canada and this is our May long weekend.
I know yours is next week. ;-)

 Victoria Day is the third Monday in May and it's the unofficial start of summer here. This is when it's generally safe again to plant your garden, it's when people go out to open their cottages, and many barbecues are pulled out from storage to start another year of grilling.



In Quebec, it's also the sign that there is less than a month of school left and then real summer begins.

Since we've moved out of our house and into an upper flat/condo, we don't have those rituals any more. I can't say that I miss most of them. Although I loved my garden, I'm not a gardener.

We don't have a cottage and when we had the house, we left our barbecue out all year around because it wasn't unheard of me to trek out in the snow to grill something if I was in the mood for it.

Having said all that, the long weekend has lost a bit of its meaning to me. My children are long out of the school system, although they are in various stages of undergrad and post-graduate studies; I don't even have that any more.

So, maybe it's time I start some new traditions to mark the unofficial beginning of summer. Perhaps something - dare I say it - quilt related!

A new May quilt, every year. A new design, a new technique - something I've not tried before. I think that sounds like a good plan.

The photos I've sprinkled throughout this post are of something I learned earlier this year: fabric postcards. They are so much fun to make and I had a blast.

You can actually mail them through the postal service. I did and they arrived in one piece. You just have to be sure to get them hand-stamped at the postal counter.

I still have a list of people I want to send some to. I hope you enjoyed looking at them as I did making them.