Songs to sew by

A few years ago, my friend Currer Bell tried to get me to go with her to Zen meditation. Half an hour in to the multi-hour ordeal I was almost kicked out. Why? Apparently, I'm not so much with the sitting-still-in-quiet-thing.

It's true. I absolutely cannot be left alone with own thoughts. I wiggle and fidget and yawn and squirm. My mind wanders. I make lists. I suddenly develop impossible-to-reach scratches. It's freaking weird.

Anyway, all of this is a prelude to the fact that I hate operating in silence. Even when I'm writing on a big deadline, I have my iPod headphones jammed in my ears. I have mixes for everything: working out, writing, relaxing, sorted by genre, for happy moods, sad moods, contemplative moods. You name it.

So last weekend, I decided I needed to create a quilting iTunes mix.

I know, according to Shakespeare, brevity is the soul of wit, and all that. But I have trouble winnowing stuff down. Which explains why my playlist is roughly seven hours long. (Sidenote: have you ever tried to enter "quilting" into the iTunes store? Yeesh.)

Since I love you, dear reader, I won't bore you with my list of all 107 songs. But I thought I'd give you the names and artists of a few of my favorites. Most of them are of the girl-with-guitar persuasion. Which, frankly, is not only fine with me, but it seems kind of appropriate, no?

But here's the deal. You've gotta share the love and pass along some of your favorite sewing/crafting/chilling with your favorite hobby songs. Because, just like fabric, you can never have enough good music. :-)

Two Dozen Songs To Sew By:

"Jolene" - Dolly Parton
"Shining Waters" - Andy Leftwich.
"Careful" - Guster
"Jezebel" - 10,000 Maniacs
"Taking The Long Way Round" - Dixie Chicks
"Circus" - Britney Spears
"Galileo" - Indigo Girls
"Regretting What I Said" - Christine Lavin (Live version mandatory)
"Nutshell" - Alice In Chains
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" - George Harrison
"The Dress Looks Nice On You" - Sufjan Stevens
"Like A Prayer" - Madonna
"What Is This Feeling?" - Idina Menzel and Kristen Chenowith from Wicked
"She Don't Like Roses" - Christine Kane
"Smart Girls" - Jonathan Rundman
"Fuck You" - Ani DiFranco
"Slopes" - Strength in Numbers
"Closer to Me" - Dar Williams & Bela Fleck
"Roam" - B-52s
"White Room" - Cream
"Walk The Same Line" - Everything But The Girl
"Straw Hat And Dirty Old Hank" - Barenaked Ladies
"Cigarettes And Chocolate Milk" - Rufus Wainwright
"So Long, So Wrong" - Alison Krauss & Union Station
"Desperately Wanting" - Better Than Ezra