There are other quilts I should have started. There's a couple I have planned for family members, a couple coming together in my mind for friends, then there's the one - or two (I think I have enough of the fabric for two) - that I want to make to raise money for Swamp Corps; but I just couldn't get this one out of my head.
All of the quilts I made last year began with a love for a particular fabric, or a desired color scheme or theme, kept in mind while I spent my quiet moments looking at photos of quilts all over the web. Eventually the fabric or theme in mind would start falling into place in a way similar to something I'd seen, then I'd start laying things out and rearranging until it settled into something that expressed what I had in my heart and made sense in my head.
This one though, was different. It was inspired by my friend who collects paintings of poppies on her living room wall - all sorts, different styles. The poppy fabric made sense to go in frames, lined up together, with the striking teal green against the rich red. Then Joel Dewberry's plaid came along! It threw in that hipster element that's been haunting me. I knew something needed to go across the expanse of red at the bottom and when I closed my eyes to think about it, the stripes at odd angles popped into place. This one wasn't based on anything else I'd seen, it came from my own mind and it wouldn't get out of my mind until I'd sewn it up! It was creating a block against any other quilt I might have been making.
And just in time, too: this one had no name, no claim, but ESP's annual Big Hearts Pageant was coming up, complete with silent auction, and since this seemed to me to be quite appropriate for the Valentine's season, I sent it off. My very first silent auction! And I thought this would be a simple thing. Drop off the quilt, feel great about supporting a great cause.
I do feel great about it, but other feelings and thoughts came along too. Suddenly I worried if it would be good enough! What if it didn't sell for much? What if all this hard (well, not so hard... as I'll explain) work didn't help ESP out diddly-squat? And who would buy it? Would they really love it? And then I realized - this was the first quilt I had made that I was sending out there, somewhere, where I could not visit it. I can visit every other quilt I've made. I can pet it and stare at it and remember what I've learned from each one and the love in my heart for the person I gave it to. But this one is gone. I've sent this part of my heart off in a way that it cannot return to me - not that I'm deeply attached to the quilt itself, but the process, the love that went into it - is out there, somewhere. I hope that love connects with the person who bought it. It sure was unceremonious to fold it, put it in a Trader Joe's bag, put that bag inside a big Hancock Fabric's bag since it was an overcast day, and drop it off at an office with only a nice-but-unknowledgeable volunteer sitting there, tapping away at a computer. He was so kind as he said "Thank you" - barely turning around to look, but then followed that up, with a full-turning, "Yes, thank you very much," without even looking at what was in the bag.
I am pretty happy with the pictures I got of it. I'm looking forward to improving on my quilt photography - not to becoming a pro at it, but I'm happy enough to get some good shots that show off what I love about my work.
This quilt reinforced in my mind what I already knew about myself: I have learned most of what I know the hard way. This, the 9th quilt I've made, is by far the easiest I've ever made! It is my habit to jump into projects that form in my head without realizing what I'm getting into, and the other 8 quilts I've made would not necessarily fit into the beginners' category - far from it in some cases. That's why I say this one wasn't as much hard work. It was most enjoyable work. So much fun playing with these fabrics. The richness of the teal green against the brilliant red just made me happy.
The limited piecing of this one made for very relaxed quilting. I've learned to quilt long lines all in the same direction, and I've learned it works better when quilting around squares or rectangles to do all the horizontals at one step and the verticals in another - instead of literally sewing around the rectangles. I figured out with this one to use strips of masking tape to keep the long quilting lines relatively straight and lined up from top to middle to bottom, and to tape along the diagonals so that I could stop the long lines at the right spot to meet the angled quilting lines perfectly.
I learned that form might follow function but really, Form Follows Fabric - especially the amount of it. I didn't know how this quilt would lay out when I ordered fabric, and realized in plenty of time that I did not have enough teal for the backing to be all in one piece as I'd intended. So I chose the 2 other prints that most closely matched my bobbin thread (lesson learned the very hard way from quilt #3) and worked with it as I could. This throw-sized quilt measures 48" by 68". And it makes me very happy. Maybe a couple bought it for their daughter. Maybe it happened to match somebody's living room perfectly. Maybe it was bought for a wedding present. I'll never know. I just hope somebody out there loves this quilt like I do.
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