fatigue

2,989,409 pageviews. Frankly I'm flabbergasted. When I started blogging at Badskirt, I had no idea that I'd still be at it six years later; nor did I expect to find so many friends along the way.

With six years of blogging though, it is inevitable that you go through bouts of blogger fatigue - days or weeks when you feel like you have nothing to write about.  Days when you'd rather stare at the sewing machine needle than the keyboard. Days when you wonder what you're doing.

Lately I've been in a bit of a writing slump. I've had no problem conjuring up posts about our road trips, but the posts about craft and ongoing projects haven't come as easily. When I started sewing, I had many things to write about. With every project, I was making something different or tackling a new technique. As I've become more proficient, I felt I've had less to say. Becoming more of an expert has unexpectedly muffled my writing. Not a trajectory that I had imagined.

Photography is another contributing factor. When I started blogging, my pictures were undeniably crap. I'd throw a skirt on the carpet, take a dodgy photograph and then write up what I learned. As my aptitude for photographing fabric and craft projects grew, I put more and more pressure on myself to avoid the carpet shots. I had some unrealistic expectation that every picture should be styled as if it were for print publication.

I'm going to try over the next couple of months to revisit blogging in the way I did six years ago - Showing the simple with the complex. The not-so-styled along with the wonderful. Sharing my sexy carpet.

I've been sewing this week.  Fat quarters purchased on holidays have been turned into patchwork squares for a quilt back. Old blocks long lost by the postal service have been plucked from the cupboard and turned into an improv cushion top. A shirt has been made sans pattern. Sans pattern people! Ring that bell and celebrate.

To cap things off a quilt top has been finished, and it's only Wednesday.

I've had a bit of blogger's fatigue, and I've been reluctant to write 'nothing' posts. I've been reluctant to show quilts that aren't finished and photographed in ridiculous locations - draped against a barn, hung on a swing set, splayed out on snow-covered ground or swinging in the wind at the beach.

Today I'm going old school though. I laid it all out on the carpet.

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Creative fatigue happens to all of us. What's your secret for staving off the self-imposed pressures and getting back to loving the things you do?