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Over the years, my math skills have improved.
I can make pretty good judgement calls.
I've learned much about textiles.
I've learned self-discipline and how to focus.
I excel in physical education.
I have dabbled in the medicinal arts.
I quilt.
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Pomp and Circumstances
By Helen Kelley
This morning I got a really lovely email. When I turned on my computer, there it was. "A prestigious university" was offering me a Ph.D. based on my life experiences. Now, isn't that sweet? I've had a lot of life experiences, and this makes them all worthwhile.
How do I deserve this diploma? Let me count the ways...
Over the years, my math skills have improved. I can figure the square footage of a quilt. I can manipulate the shapes of pieces to make them all come together into a flat block. I know what pentagon and octagon mean. I can make right angles and cut really accurate 60-degree angles if I use one of the slanted lines on my cutting board as a guide.
I can make some pretty good judgment calls. I know that if I cut a strip on the length of the fabric rather than across it will be firmer and more dependable. I know that any triangle I make will have at least one stretchy side cut on the bias. I know that if I lay two strips together and feed them through my machine without due care, one of them is going to stretch, and they won't match. I know you've got to pin your stuff when you sew it, and I know you've got to press it.
I've learned much about textiles. I know that closely woven fabrics are easier to work with, and no matter how alluring a piece of material is and how much vain pride I have in my ability to handle tricky textiles, it's just not worth getting more gray hairs and new forehead wrinkles. I've learned where the shops are and where my favorite fabrics can be found--the dyed ones, the theme fabrics, and the sophisticated ones of quality. I know how to use threads and glues and markers to make these fabrics perform for me. Oh, I have gotten so smart over the years!
I've learned self-discipline and how to focus in spite of distractions around me. I can produce quilts, though somewhat erratic ones sometimes, in the midst of children, loud TV, burning food, and trips to the emergency room.
I have learned management, how to sort my stash, stack it, and store it. I have learned how to schedule, even though I usually find myself with looming deadlines. I am very good at multitasking, which means taking care of emergencies now and seizing the quiet, late night hours for myself.
Physical education is a subject in which I excel. I do lots of waist-bends picking up pins. I can duck-waddle while basting my quilt sandwiches. I stretch, breathe deeply, and rotate my head periodically while I am sitting at the quilting frame. And when frustrated with a quilting challenge, I walk. In one mile from my house to the neighborhood school and back, I can solve difficult problems and lower my blood pressure. Singing birds and whooshing lawn sprinklers do wonders for the knots in my brain.
I have dabbled in the medicinal arts. One needs to know how to care for some things immediately such as the damage wrought by a rotary cutter and the finger-bleeding that follows a jab by a quilting needle. How to soothe battered quilting fingers ranks right up at the top of that list. Eyes can usually be taken care of with improved lighting, and malnourishment is rectified with frozen, prepackaged meals and carry-out pizza.
Finally, I am now very good with color. I no longer pick my fabrics with the hues lined up in straight runs--blending, comforting. I have learned to be daring and let my colors crash and sparkle. I find joy in sunset reds and deep-woods greens and even the lavender of smog-haze across a city.
When I get my Ph.D., I will dress up my stuffy black gown with a brilliantly colored academic hood, one that drapes around my neck and dangles down my back. Getting my Ph.D. from a prestigious university will be another "life experience."
©HK 2005
Helen Kelley is a quiltmaker, lecturer, author, and teacher from Minneapolis, Minnesota. You can visit Helen on the Internet at her website www.helenkelley-patchworks.com or email Helen at this address: helen@helenkelley-patchworks.com.
Helen's book Every Quilt Tells a Story: A Quilter's Stash of Wit and Wisdom is a collection of two decades of Loose Threads. Now in its second printing, the book is available at quilt shops, bookstores, or from us at www.VillageQuiltShoppe.
View our archive of Loose Threads columns.
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