Surprising Swap

Each of us is a one and only. No one sees the world exactly like we do. So it is with how we use the fabrics that come into our lives. I try to remember that when I quilt. I try to remember that when I interact with people who enter my life. 

Sometimes I feel great with a thing I've made, or being with a person, and sometimes not so much. Perhaps the secret is to keep working on myself and my fabric art until I feel like its the way I want. I want to remember that it I am the key to my own life and to my own quilting.

I have one friend in MN whom I think is an amazing artist. If I remember, she studied art in Europe and here in the states. She & her husband create all year and then host a sale that it open to friends, family and some of their business associates. I have enjoyed seeing what she makes and when I saw some of the photos, asked to buy a pair of the knit sox and for one of the kitchen towels she wove.  She suggested a swap for a pair of quilted placemats.

Her work arrived last week. The sox are so much fun and will be worn by an infant Educare Teacher in town. They do not wear shoes in the classroom, so having colorful sox is a plus with those babes at her feet.

The kitchen towel is woven with 460 threads that she counts to keep the pattern going on it. I sit here shaking my head with how that process goes. The sox are knit with variegated yarn, but we marveled at the pattern the knitting took. And then to wrap them, came this brilliant wonderful splash of hand dyed fabric! 

My friend suggested orange fabric with a hint of cobalt and other blues. Here is one of the pics she took with her dishes over them. 

This pattern said to lay four fabrics right side up, and cut all at one time! Then a row or column would shift the layers and make the same pattern with the colors, so that I actually made four placemats.

She really only wanted two.

And I understand storage limitations we all have in our homes, and also was concerned that my interpretation of an orange with blue placemat was ok with her needs.

These placemats are reversible so that means she gets many options to mix and match.