What do you do with your brain while you sew? – A shameless appeal for a favor

Sewing can be very creative work, but it’s also a technical skill. Once I have an idea and it expands into a vision and I select the fabrics,  the creative work is done and the process becomes technical. The left side of my brain takes control. Because I am a very visual person with a short short-term memory, I sketch pictures or create and print them on the computer. I draft the pattern and write the instructions. The assembly starts then:  cut efficiently and accurately, organize the sewing order and maintain precise seam allowances, press carefully, assemble logically…

I’m a math person. The drafting, writing and assembly parts are easy, but the imagination and design process frequently take me longer than the actual construction. I need to give it my full and focused attention.

So once I am involved in the “making” of the quilt or other item, the right side of my brain gets bored. It starts suggesting ideas that might be more interesting than sewing miles of 2″ strips:  reading, going to the gym, eating, calling my mother, rearranging the furniture, eating, starting a new dress for a granddaughter, writing stories or articles, beginning a new and different quilt project, eating or sleeping.  I try to channel it into productive thought or prayer, but along with the short-term memory comes a short attention span. If I can’t give it my full and undivided attention, the left lobe strays like a three year old.

I’m really not much of a TV watcher,  and I do need to keep my eyes on that 1/4″ seam allowance, so the perfect solution for me is audiobooks. I love being read to, and since I have very shallow tastes in literature (see note above re: short attention span), I can usually absorb all of the story while I work. Sometimes I do have to back up and re-listen to part of the story, but not too often.

The best source for audiobooks in cassette, CD and downloadable formats, is my public library. I have access to thousands of books there. I do all of my browsing online and order what I want from the comfort of my own home. The downloads are my favorite, because I don’t have to leave the house to pick them up. Short short-term memory, short attention span and sluggish inclinations.  That’s me.

Downloads can be transferred to an mp3 player or listened to from the computer. The mp3 player is nice for listening while I clean house or work out, too. My car only has a cassette player, so I am always glad to find those “vintage” audiobooks.

There are a few online sources for public domain audiobooks in downloadable formats. Most of them are read by volunteers and the quality varies.  I have purchased some audiobooks, too, just as I buy books to keep from some of my favorite authors.

Now, I may get the opportunity to read and review audiobooks. It looks like most of them are Christian books, fiction and nonfiction, on a variety of subjects. I have set up a blog for that purpose, but naturally, the publishing company wants to know that I have READERS of my blog! I don’t. My book blog exists in a dark corner of cyberspace. I haven’t written much on it, and I recently removed some of the reviews I wrote a few months ago. It echoes.

I am going to rewrite the old reviews and write some new ones.  I have two favors to ask of you:

1. “Follow” that blog in your favorite reader: google reader or bloglines or whatever you prefer.

2. Comment on that blog often.

I thank you!! In return, I have two sweet little pincushions to give away. There is one here and one on the Conspectuity blog. You can only win one of the two pincushions. I will draw a winner’s name by random.org on January 29th.

This one is a nice plump 4″ across. It’s filled with local wool, cleaned and carded. Lovely for sharp pins and needles. You can be entered in a drawing to win this one by leaving a comment here to tell me that you have added the Conspectuity blog to your reader. You can get a second drawing entry by following this GloryQuilts blog, too. Just comment to tell me you did it. I trust you.

On the Conspectuity blog, there is another pincushion! You get one entry for posting there, to tell me that you have added it to your “follow” or “reader” list. You will also get one entry for each comment you leave there on the other posts. (One comment per post)