Basting a Holiday Golf Quilt

My appointment at the clubhouse to baste is at 8 am and this one took me an hour and a half to finish. This is the time of working on a quilt that I make some choices for doing either hand quilting or machine quilting. Sometimes we can look at something and not see it.  We see what we expect to see or want to see, and then just miss what's right in front of us.

I felt my whole world slow down as I basted this one. My friend here in town gave me some panels with guys playing golf. I used one for the center block and scrapped the rest of the pattern. Most of the fabric came from Lee's estate. 

I know a lot of folks stay away from scrap quilts, and they are a lot of work to make the quilt look good. I purchased the ice blue fabric for the background, as well as the back and binding. Fabric from Lee's estate is good quality and yet, fabric dyes change over the years making them hard to match. This ice blue did the trick with darker colors.

The slow down energy here was comforting to me. And that is how the game of golf is played. I decided to machine quilt on those sashing strips and then do something more decorative on the borders, perhaps a serpentine stitch in a dark red thread that meanders from edge to edge. 

Then, I went to a fabric store in town and purchased material from the sale rack to make some simple mug rugs. I spent time with them practicing one of the decorated stitches on my new machine. There is a 2.5" strip of green fabric that is going to make a perfect binding for it.

Things are rarely what they seem to be, whether its in quilting or in our relationships or what we do in the greater world. I never liked the game of golf because it seems so slow, yet here it was slowing me down, presenting the sense of peace, and allowing me time to consider my options. One of the spiritual mysteries I learned long ago is said simply, "It is time".