Learning Curve #7: I Quit!!

and then I quit again.. and I quit again.. and I quit again…

Note to self: reconsider trying something new when you are out of sync with the Universe… (I know, Frank, it “just is”.).. hehee

My granddaughter, 4-yr-old Rowan, has recently shown an interest in whales and since I had found a pattern for a whale puzzle, I was eagerly waiting for today – time in the shop – to try my hand at scrollsawing a puzzle.

Ha.
I should have known right from the start that I just didn’t have the patience for this today. After cutting the piece of wood I found that sanding the edges was annoying today. Usually I rather like running sandpaper over the wood, but not this morning. A warning sign.

With my ever present intention of becoming more of a perfectionist, I did a lot of self-talk and deep breathing to stay focused on the completion of the project, on the process and on precision.

The Scroll Saw Challenge
I chose to use a small “pin” blade to start the cutting and all was going quite well until I got to some fine curves. Here, I thought that it was time to try the spiral blade and so I stopped the machine in order to switch blades. Well first I had to get the original blade out of the wood. Yah.. thought that was going to be easy, and it was for the first inch or two and then… then came the first series of conversations by my ever-protecting ego self saying ”quit”. Oh how I wanted to listen. I could feel my hands itching to toss the wood into the corner and go look for another project to work on.

But the deep breathing and positive self-talk did the trick and I finally got the old blade out of the wood and pulled out a spiral blade. Well.. ha… challenge #2: how the heck do you get the machine to hold this little baby???

Deep breathing; self-talk; patience… Finally in it went, but the tension wasn’t right (I think) and so that went haywire. ”QUIT” said the voice of self-preservation. “Not quitting” said the voice of determination and so I persevered.

3 blades later… I finally made it around the lines of the puzzle. 3.. yes… 3.
As you can probably guess I’m skipping several dialogues of ”QUIT / Don’t Quit”. It was indeed a struggle.

But I did stay true to my intention. I didn’t give up. I did complete the puzzle. It does look like a puzzle. Don’t think I’ll try another one any time soon—if ever.
Pretty sure I won’t go trying any inlay designs. Not this week, anyway.
But it’s done. Period.

The Puzzle
I chose to cut into the puzzle from the edge when I started the puzzle and now it sits with some glue on the cut (crossing my fingers that this idea works).
When it is dry and I’ve put a coating of wax on it all I’ll post a pix in my projects.

Until then.. I quit -and it’s off to make some home-made bread. Cross your fingers that the bread doesn’t explode into flames like the ribs did on the weekend!!!

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)