When I first started quilting two years ago, I absolutely fell in love with the art - both the physical making of the quilt and the concept of taking small, separate pieces and putting them together into a beautiful whole. Seeing the whole thing evolve from choosing the pattern and the fabrics all the way through to a finished quilt is incredibly rewarding, and so far (knock on wood), each quilt has looked better at the end than I imagined it would.
Making a quilt now makes perfect sense to me, not only because it's something that I love to do, but also because it's something over which I am in complete control. I get to decide everything: the size, the pattern, the colors, the fabrics, the block size, the arrangement, the borders, the backing, the stitching, the thread color, the binding - every decision is mine and is not dependent on what the doctor says or when I can get an appointment. If I feel like spending three hours working on it in the evening, that's fine. If I'm too tired and don't feel like even looking at it, that's fine too. It feels strangely like I can take my cancer and put it into the quilt ... cut it into small pieces and arrange it the way I want and make it into something better.
Since I am still relatively new to the world of quilting (this will be my 4th quilt) and I haven't done anything particularly advanced yet, I knew I wanted whatever pattern I chose to be fairly simple. It needed to be something that I wouldn't have to think about too hard while making, something that wouldn't add any stress in trying to perfect a difficult block. After a little bit of looking, I settled on a Disappearing 9 Patch, which is very easy but can look completely different depending on fabric choice and placement. Picking the colors was easy: the awareness colors for thyroid cancer are teal, pink, and blue, so the quilt will be in those colors.
Next time - choosing the fabrics!
No comments:
Post a Comment