“That depends,” said Caleb, turning his head on the side and lowering his voice, with the air of a man who felt himself to be saying something deeply religious. “You must be sure of two things: you must love your work, and not be always on looking over the edge of it, wanting your play to begin. And the other is, you must not be ashamed of your work, and think it would be more honourable to you to be doing something else. You must have pride in your work and in learning to do it well, and not always be saying, There’s this and there’s that—if I had this or that to do, I might make something of it. No matter what a man is—I wouldn’t give twopence for him”—her Caleb’s mouth looked bitter, and he snapped his fingers—”Whether he was the prime minister or the rick-thatcher, if he didn’t do well what he undertook to do.”

Middlemarch by George Eliot

I read this quotation this past week, and it started me thinking about my own work…plus I love Caleb Garth; he is one of my favorite characters in Middlemarch! Of course Finished Fibers, LLC is my job; I am a business owner and artisan for my pay, but I always hesitate for a fraction of a second when I say “my work.” I don’t consider what I do in the studio as a job usually or work…a grind that I have to do daily. I have come to believe “work” for me is more akin to an artist’s work or oeuvre than the daily place where people go to earn money. I do have to meet deadlines, and I work with clients and their projects, not my own individual work, though, I do consider each project my own. My work is very personal both for my clients and myself.

Custom Quilting echo design on someone else’s applique.

So I find myself hesitating when I call what I do “work” because someone could easily misunderstand what I mean. My work is a job…as I said, I have a queue and deadlines and clients and marketing and bills and…work, a daily job that I do to earn money for my family and myself. My work is also my creativity and skills, all of the things that I love to do…planning, designing, fabric pulling, cutting, piecing, quilting, binding, hand sewing…I have the long term project of the “How to Make An American Quilt” quilt that I work on everyday, and it is all handwork, right now it is needle turn applique, and I usually reserve that hand work until the last hour or two in the studio (It finds its way to my TV time, too!), and I still feel a little indulgent when I sit down to hand sew. It is my work and I am being paid to make the quilt, but I also get so much joy from sitting down and hand sewing.

I am so lucky to have the joy of work for money that is so deeply intrenched in what I love to do. When I was teaching I often dreamed of my own studio space where I could work for hours, uninterrupted, on a sewing project, and now that is my work in all of its meanings. My work is my play, and I am so proud of it! I think Caleb Garth would be pleased.

Sending Quilty Love,

Ginger

Reading Now: I had to tape the front cover of my Middlemarch book back on…it is an old pocket paperback (791 pages which makes it a hefty little brick!) that I have read more than once, and I am almost finished…whew, so much is happening! I am also still reading Mozart’s Starling, and it is so interesting and thoughtful. I’m halfway through the book. What are you reading?

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