Slow Living, Slow Reading
You've probably heard about one or another of the "slow" movements, such as "Slow Food." Here's a website with information about many slow movements, including "Slow Books." One such book is In Praise of Slow: How a Worldwide Movement is Challenging the Cult of Speed, by Carl Honore was chosen by Ariana Huffington as the first Huffington Post Book Club selection in the fall on 2009. "The time has come to challenge our obsession with doing everything more quickly," says Honoré. The SlowMovement.com website is family-operated enterprise dedicated to "create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society." The site quotes Jon Kabat-Zinn, professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School , who has spent much of his professional life bringing the medical world’s attention to the wisdom of the body and the healing that can happen when we get in touch with our senses and our mind. Kabat-Zinn says: “Mindfulness is a certain way of paying attention that is healing, that is restorative, that is reminding you of who you actually are so that you don’t wind up getting entrained into being a human doing rather than a human being.” Here's an excerpt from the Slow Books page: "What better way to be part of the slow movement than to have a good read. The Slow Books movement is about getting back into the love of reading good books. Few people these days spend time each day reading for sheer enjoyment. "When we have time for leisure we tend to fill that time with physical activity or with passive TV viewing. We often have difficulty justifying sitting down and reading a good book, even to ourselves. The pace of our lives and the expectations we place on ourselves result in a life filled with ‘have to’ activities, and very few quiet enjoyment-only activities. "There are many benefits of reading regularly; reduction in stress levels, increased creativity, inspiration and motivation, entertainment and a good laugh, and broader perspectives and more open mind. Reduction in stress levels "Reading a good book transports us to another reality. It gives us a break from the stresses of everyday life. There is something really relaxing about sitting down or curling up with a good book. Almost before we start reading we can feel ourselves start to relax and unwind. It is the anticipation of enjoyment, and perhaps there is some element of escape in there too. Reading for pleasure takes our mind of our problems, and doing this can help us to gain perspective. What better way to relax! Increased creativity "Not only does reading stimulate the right side of our brain through expanding our imagination, it also gives us different ways of looking at things. Using our imagination regularly frees up our creativity in other areas of our life. Inspiration and motivation "Some books inspire and motivate us to do more with our lives. They show us what is possible. So many times we limit ourselves by preconceived ideas about what we are, or are not capable of. Many people who have done extraordinary things with their lives have written their autobiography to help us to see that we, too, can do extraordinary things. "Deep within we know we are capable of amazing things, and reading good books can awaken this knowledge. You know the feeling you get after reading a book that speaks to you, that touches your life, a feeling that you can do what the author has done too?"
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Feature
Slowing Down and Appreciating the Good Things in Life
A Conversation with Living Now Award Winner Gyleen X. Fitzgerald
Editor's Note: On May 26, 2010, during the Living Now Book Awards medalist appreciation event in New York, I met Cleosie Kirkland, there on behalf of his aunt, independent publisher and Living Now Award-winning author Gyleen X. Fitzgerald. Cleo’s admiration for his aunt was obvious and infectious, and he spoke to the assembled crowd about growing up around such talent, and about her amazing, award-winning book.The 2010 Living Now Award gold medalist in the Crafts/Hobbies/Collecting category is Quilts: Unfinished Stories with New Endings, one of five books published by FPI Publishing, the company Ms. Fitzgerald launched in 2005 to publish her quilting and poetry books. Gyleen was born in Philadelphia, PA but grew up in Taiwan and Japan, and those formative years in the Far East developed her love for simplistic artistry. She began needlework at a very young age, holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering, and has long pursued artistic expression in drawing and quilt making.
Her quilts blend color, pattern and texture to provide a contemporary essence to traditional quilting. She shares her enthusiasm for quilting through interactive lectures and high energy workshops.
Soon after the event in New York, I spoke to Gyleen by phone about her books and her career, and told her I wanted to share her story with IndependentPublisher.com readers. We decided that a conversation between she and Cleo would be a perfect way to tell it. Here is that conversation:
Make no mistake: my Aunt Gyleen is a tough one. She never was one to coddle me and was always the first to tell me “what’s what.”
“Cleosie,” she would say. “You should stop playing with those toys. It takes hard work to get into college, and that hard work starts now.” After that, I never touched a G.I. Joe again. I was 7.
“Cleosie!” she would say. “What are you watching on TV? If you have to watch something be productive, watch CNN!” I was in high school when she told me this one. You can probably guess what’s the only channel I watch today?
I could have shrugged her off. I could have tuned her out, like I did other adults. But I didn’t. Every time she had something to say, every “gentle” suggestion she gave me, I always listened — I always tuned in. And, oddly enough, it wasn’t until last week, when she asked me to interview her for this article, that I finally realize why I listened. My Aunt Gyleen is one of those rare people who tells people what they need to hear and is never afraid to do so. For me, it has pushed me to achieve goals that I couldn’t even dream of. For this, I would say my Aunt Gyleen is much more than bold — she is heroic.
Nothing exemplifies this heroic quality she has more than her new book, Quilts: Unfinished Stories with New Endings. In this book she takes what was once discarded and gives them the tough love and support they need. Each quilt is bold, beautiful, and unafraid — and this award is a testament to her strength and support. Thank you Aunt Gyleen for telling me “what’s what.” And now, as I sit back in my chair, a Princeton graduate and avid reader, it all makes sense to me. I hope the readers find strength in her words and continue to push themselves and those around them.
CK: Your book, Quilts: Unfinished Stories with New Endings, seems to have inspired many of your readers to keep working on their own quilts and unfinished pieces. What inspired you to write this book?
GF: My inspiration came from a woman in my church. One day after service she came to me and asked if I wanted a “few of her pieces.“ I told her I’d love to have them, though, in the back of my head, I was thinking: “It’s only a few pieces, I should be able to find a place to store this junk.”
A few weeks later she brought over her pieces, and I was shocked. She showed up with a truckload of quilt block patterns, antique fabrics, and quilting tools. But what most impressed me – what really gave me the idea for the book – were the unfinished quilts. Inside the truck were not only the woman’s mother-in- law’s unfinished quilts, but also the unfinished quilts of her mother-in-law’s mother (dating back to the 1920s). Looking at those quilt block pieces was like looking back in time at the individual histories of these women, each stitch and each pattern representing a particular moment in their separate lives. That was the real treasure.
How would you compare your book with other books on quilting?
Well, this book is very different. There are plenty of quilting books out there that’ll teach you a new pattern or technique. In fact, some of my early books do just that. This book, however, is more about the stories behind the quilts and the quilters that made them. The quilters in the 1920s were letter-writing people. They would mail their quilting patterns to each other along with a letter telling about their recent comings and goings.
I wanted to recreate that feeling of kinship the ladies shared. That’s how the scrap book layout format idea came along. I figured by adding pictures from that time period with the quilts, the reader would really get a sense of the world these women lived in.
You found pictures of the actual women?
Well, not exactly. The pictures were submitted from readers those who follow me on www.colourfulstitches.com. They really got behind me on this project and sent me a ton of their old family pictures. So the pictures are actually of their great aunts, grandmothers, and mothers, not of the actual women whose quilts I finished. But, the authenticity of the pictures lies in the feeling of nostalgia that they invoke. We all take pictures of the same things: our dogs, the grand children, birthday parties, and so forth. That seems to be a common thread among us all. So when someone looks at a picture of a family barbecue they aren’t thinking about the people they don’t know in the picture, they think about their own family barbecue memories. They start thinking and remembering those kinship feelings, and that’s what I was going for.
What were some of your challenges in writing this book?
Well, I guess, the biggest challenge was that of familiarity. I’m not an antique quilter and I had no desire to do restoration. My style is more on the modern side, and the types of color schemes and patterns I work with didn’t match up to the unfinished quilt blocks that I had. So I talked with a friend of mine who was more familiar with antique quilts. She suggested that I finish them the way I wanted to finish them – give the quilts a modern flair. And, by finishing the quilts, it would be like helping the women who pieced the blocks finish their stories. When I started thinking of the project this way, I finally started to see the value of what the lady brought me.
Have you talked with the woman who gave you the quilt blocks and tops since the book came out?
Actually, I talked with her not too long ago. She is alive and well. I showed her the finished quilts and she was thrilled. I found out she was sand bagging on me! She had one more unfinished quilt, her favorite one, and she said “you’re the only one who I know that could finish it.” So she gave it to me.
So I still stay in contact with her, and ended up finding out more about her family history. She has an adult daughter, but no quilters in her family. The quilts that she gave me for the book actually came from her husband’s side of the family. They were from Kansas City and one of them had a note to her mother saying “this was hard.” Some of the quilt patterns had calculations on them – some serious math.
What does the Living Now Award mean to you?
Well, winning this award was awesome. I’m a competitor and this was my first book to get the top prize. I felt really good about that, and this award confirmed to me that I’m on the right track, reaching the right audience.
Quilting is an art that really makes you reflect on your life; it slows you down and makes you appreciate the little moments. In my book I try to capture those moments in the lives of the women who made the quilt blocks, and, by finishing their quilts, try to bring life to something that was once discarded. This is the essence of what the Living Now Awards are all about – slowing down and appreciating the good things in life. And there really could be no better award to reflect what my book is about.
Any new projects coming out soon?
As a writer my brain never turns off. The newest book I am working on is called Trash to Treasure Pineapple Quilts. I thought it was just another quilting project book but evidently I was wrong. I brought it with me to an international exhibit and the people bought it up. The book isn’t incredibly thick, but it’s a fun read. It came last week and its selling like you won’t believe.
I think that the most popular books are about relationships. People read your book because what’s inside is about something they can connect with. Whether it’s a novel or a how to guide, your reader wants to connect with you. When they do, the book gets dog eared and passed around. That’s what I was looking for in this book.
This recent book came out at the right time and had the right relationships behind it. My audience can see that, and so the book took off and is sailing – now, I’m just on the ship trying to enjoy the ride. I know sometimes its feast or famine, but right now we’ve got a heck of a feast here.
Quilts: Unfinished Stories with New Endings
By Gyleen X. Fitzgerald
128 page hardcover; $34.95
ISBN: 978-0-9768215-0-2
Available at www.colourfulstitches.com