Making Joyful Noises

One of my absolute favorite parts of CQ work is blending threads to create satin stitch flowers and birds, etc. From the very moment I first started adding my threads to rings I KNEW this was going to be perfect system for sorting threads for thread blending/painting....  Keeping threads sorted and in order was always awkward for me.  Yesterday I pulled the colors I want to use for my bluebirds.

The moment I started I was making joyful noises..  Yesterday I began teaching the new chatelaine class at the quilt shop and was commenting on the incredible quilts on the wall.  They were extremely complex and assembled with perfection... I commented I just could NEVER be that perfect.  My student Ginger said she was a "joyful noise  quilter".  I had heard of joyful noise in a religious context but not referring to quilting so I asked her to explain...

She said she had a choir master who told them if they couldn't sing just to make joyful noises and that was her attitude toward quilting..  I love that concept because it goes directly to the heart of CQ which never demands  perfection and embraces endless opportunities to fail and recover and go on.....making joyful noises all the way...  I hadn't thought of my resolution for 2014...but it will be forging ahead no matter what....making joyful noises all the way.