Chapter 8 check-in

I'm late, I'm late. . . and it isn't because I didn't find Chapter 8 interesting. I did. But for some reason I seemed to just slip farther and farther behind. Now if I don't get this posted so I will allow myself to move on, I'll be late for Chapter 9 too. Interestingly enough, I did morning pages 5 out of 7 mornings last week - I didn't think I managed them that many times. They continue to be a source of working through what I'm doing with January's journal contribution - I suspect I repeat what I'm going to do a lot from morning to morning, but then again, that's my sense of what morning pages are -- just writing out the lists and stray thoughts of day-to-day, so my brain doesn't have to try to hold of it at the ready. I like them, and I hope I continue them when this 12 weeks is done. I keep a small sketchbook with the notebook that I do my morning pages in and try to pick it up and use it for the things that pop into my head as I'm writing about designs for future quilts, etc. There's no reason why I couldn't do that in my morning pages notebook, except that I bought myself the darned sketchbook so I want to use it instead -- don't want to pick it up a year or 5 years from now and find it's still completely blank, as I've done with a number of journals I've bought myself over the years.
Anyway, time. . . Chapter 8 seemed to take a look into my life and expose some of my mechanisms for not having to move forward. "I don't have time. . . ." "I'll do that when. . . ." A couple of the quotes seemed directed at me: [Man can learn nothing except by going from the known to the unknown. Claude Bernard] [I shall become a master in this art only after a great deal of practice. Erich Fromm] I tend to want to be able to create a masterpiece the first time I attempt something or I don't want to attempt it at all. The useful things I picked up in this chapter were to do a little bit on a project whenever you can manage - daily, weekly, whatever time you can carve out; continue to study and learn new techniques AND MOST IMPORTANTLY TRY THEM - and learn to sift through the critiques for what is useful to you and let the rest of it go; and when you hit a roadblock, instead of doing nothing, shift your focus and try something different - you might find something that you will do even better. I recall from reading The Agony and The Ecstasy that even Michelangelo (sp?) got frustrated with the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and look how that turned out!
As I was typing that last paragraph, this sentence, "I tend to want to be able to create a masterpiece the first time I attempt something or I don't want to attempt it at all.", kept bothering me. Is that all or part of my resistance to applique? Do I now have to do something about that? Arrgh, sometimes you open a can of worms, ya know?! I took an applique class from Laurene Sinema, and frankly that class is part of my resistance to applique. So now do I have to take another class? Maybe I have to factor an applique project into the journal year? MOre food for thought.
Well, this is getting long and I'm procrastinating on moving forward here, so - no artist date last week. I can't call a stop at JoAnn's to use my 50% off coupon on fabric sheets for the printer an artist date. I'll try to do better this week!