I am closer to this quilt now. It hangs in Studio Two where I can see it every day as I’m journaling. Studio Two is a bit of a work in progress, so right now the quilt is draped on a mattress that is leaning on the wall. Eventually the mattress will be removed and the quilt will be hung on the wall.
I see my quilt every time I sit down to write a blog post or a scene in a novel. I see it every time I am on a Zoom call with friends.
Some days I look at it and smile at the wonky points that don’t match up. Sometimes I laugh at the roofs that don’t quite meet the top of the house walls.
One day I was looking at it and realized that the windows on one house are upside down, so they start at the ground level. I decided that house has a pet that cannot jump up to look out the window. I imagine how much that pet enjoys seeing outside just like everyone else on the block.
Another day I was looking at it and realized that I should have put the light green of the trees on the outer part of the trees, and the darker pieces on the inside, to show the new growth. Instead my trees became special, they are lit from within. I remember making those blocks and realizing that I could use both sides of the fabric to get a different effect.
What I Have Learned
Encouragement and patience can get us through tough things. It is so important to surround ourselves with people we can trust to give us that – and for us to encourage others and be patient with them. I have found those people in my quilt guilds, quilting and writing classes, writing circles, and in online communities. If you feel alone, start looking for a class on something that interests you. If you have no interests, just be curious and try something new anyway – you never know what might happen!
My point of view changes. As I continue making quilts and continue to learn how to handle fabric more easily my view of what a difficult pattern is has changed. If I made this quilt again I would starch each fabric before I cut it to keep it more stable. I would pin more carefully, and probably use fabric glue to get those points to meet. I would measure more precisely. If I made this quilt again it would look very different – and it would have completely different meaning for me.
There are no mistakes in quilting once a quilt has been quilted and bound. Up to that point, there are choices and opportunities to take things apart and re-do them. But I likely will never be willing to take out the quilted stitches – except for a few stitches when I run out of bobbin thread or unexpectedly have a weird tension issue.
Once it is quilted and bound the mistakes become features. There is meaning in those features. Those trees that are lit from within remind me of a visioning experience I had with a writing coach, when we were getting in touch with our muses. It’s a great memory.
Stress changes us. Just as my fabrics stretched as they were stressed by overhandling and stitching, prolonged stress for humans weakens them too. My quilting stitches hold the backing and batting and top together – and gave support to my stretched fabrics. People need support too, to help them relax and strengthen those areas that are stretched too thin. Without support we fall apart and our pieces never go back in the same way.
Sometimes it is necessary to turn things upside down. The upside down windows on the one house reminds me that there is beauty and purpose in everything. Even upside down those windows still let the light in.
There is a story everywhere I look. When I look at that one house with upside down windows I feel like maybe there is another story there. Maybe the reason that pet can’t jump up to look out the window is because his person is feeling very depressed and just can’t find the strength to get back up right now. But together they can look out the window. Maybe a bird will land in front of the window and chirp a melody that offers hope. Maybe a butterfly will land on the flower outside the window and offer a reminder that we sometimes need to be mush before we emerge with our wings.
