In the Middle

I'm so glad quilting has taught me how to be here.

I have somehow landed in the middle of a renovation. I never ever saw myself as the renovating kind. I’m not into DIY. I make enough mess on my own to add tools and wood chips in the mix. I like doing the thing I’m good at and leaving other things to other professionals.

A couple of years ago, my son started a carpentry apprenticeship and slowly, all the little things I’d love to do around the house went from, ‘we could never afford that’ to ‘I could do that for you, Mum!’ And so we started to ponder and research and scroll through Pinterest. Tim got quotes for double-glazed windows (with black frames - what was with all that yellow cream in the early 2000s?!) and without the cost of installation, we were able to afford the change. I couldn’t believe it! The windows arrived last week, and Tully and a friend of ours got to work.

One of the things that Pinterest does is make the middle invisible. And DYI reels on Instagram make it fast - start to finish in 90 seconds! But here we are in the middle. I’m so glad I’ve made about 100 quilts before being here. I have lots of experience being in the middle. And I have lots of experience knowing it won’t stay here. If I didn’t, I know I’d start to worry we might be stuck here forever.

The windows in Finlay’s room weren’t cut to the correct size, but we only discovered that after we’d taken her window out. So we set up a little bed for her here in the meantime. Thank you quilting for teaching me that mistakes like this happen all the time, and the detour doesn’t last long!

Eve’s homeschool desk is in my window because the plasterers need to finish my studio wall that Tully built me for Mother’s Day. My fabric drawers are there because my parents gave me their old air conditioner when they updated to ducted. We got that installed this week. Once the plasterers finish and the correct window comes, I can move everything out and Tully can make architraves. Thank you quilting for teaching me that sometimes the middle is messy and ugly, but I’ve learned how to steer it towards beautiful.

The plasterers were here earlier this week, and I was really excited about tidying up and making the entryway and studio look beautiful, but it turns out they needed to let everything dry and then come back and sand it all. Next week sometime. Thank you quilting for teaching me that things sometimes take longer than you expect!

After all the architraves and the plaster is finished, I want to repaint. Everything. I’m really excited about painting this big, empty entryway, but everything else makes me completely overwhelmed. I’ve never really liked this greige so instead of colour matching and touching up gaps around the windows, I may as well change it! But I’ve never painted a whole house that’s full of furniture before. I’ve never even painted a whole room that’s full of furniture before! Thank you quilting for teaching me that things can be broken down into blocks, which can be broken down further. One block at a time.

After a week of massive progress, noise, and dust, I got the flu that my girls have been tag-teaming the last few weeks. Tully went back to work, our friend Ben stayed home so we wouldn’t make him sick too. The architraves on my new bedroom windows aren’t done, but I love the uninterrupted view of our front garden. Instead of progress around the house, I’ve been slowly stitching edges to my Lavender & Twine blocks. Thank you quilting for teaching me that sometimes there’s fast and furious progress, and sometimes it’s slow. And that even if there’s a break in progress, it will still be there waiting patiently for when I can come back to it.

I grew up thinking that the point of life was ‘arriving’, becoming some finished project, but quilting (and life) has taught me that we actually spend a huge amount of time being in the middle. Always changing, always learning, sometimes messy or stuck or waiting. I thought I would hate being in the middle of a renovation, but quilting has taught me how to be in the middle. How to keep going through the messy and boring bits, always with the end in mind. I’m so grateful.

Wishing you hope and peace in the middle,

Jodi. xx

PS. I’m really enjoying being in the middle of Lavender & Twine! Not nearly as many ugly bits or boring bits as a reno! ;P You can get the pattern and paper pieces here!