Life in Process

Energy travels within us no matter where we are going, no matter how we feel from sad to happy, no matter what happens to us from joy to crisis. Our lives are always in process, moving, changing, evolving and sometimes even crashing. 

We don't travel alone. Some of us can sense the spirit guides on our path. I feel lucky to have healthy relationships with some members of my family and friends. Every time I take out a quilt project, I look at it and observe just how it changed or how I might have changed to see where I am going with it. Better to say, perhaps, where it is taking me. Even a quilt can be a spiritual guide. Clearly, it IS part of the process.

I took out Amy's Quilt again to re-do some of those errant seams. So many junctions need repair. Its a project for night time under the Ott-Light because the black fabric is really, really hard to see. What I did for today was to pin-to-mark the points that need new seams. I also loaded a couple of bobbins with dark thread so when I am ready, the machine is too.

One of the stores in town will quilt it on the long arm. I confided in her what happened to the seams and how disappointed I was in how it had come along. She told me she gets tops in a lot of ill-fitting shapes and once they get stretched and quilted, they turn out nicer than expected. She also told me I do not need to baste it before bringing it in. In fact, she doesn't want it basted. I just need to keep working on it.

With dark machine thread at the ready, I brought out my Brother-In-Law's Winter Golfers quilt top. My notes-to-self indicated that I was to cut and join 1.5" x 5.5" pieces for two side borders. Some are horizontal and some are vertical. One thing that happens when I work on a number of quilts in rotation, is that it can be difficult to get back the energy that I started with it. My notes are making it more clear, and that helps a lot. On a positive note, I return to it with fresh eyes. If memory has failed, then at least, I am not living in the past.

My energy changed. Its energy changed. The challenge is, always, will I try to recreate what was or go forward to what is possible? Each quilt has its own process and pulls me along with it, sometimes with joy. Sometimes not.

These pieces forming the border are supposed to be random. And there is nothing left to randomness in construction it if it is going to look good. I cut and chain stitched them by pairs and then laid them out, in either horizontal or vertical blocks, until the length worked. I have two side borders that look like they coordinate. The next steps involve piecing them to the center, and adding a triangle on each corner that might need appliqueing. It really looks good to me.

I decided to come back fresh to it another day.