I’ve been sleeping pretty tight lately, maybe it’s the cold weather. But last night I woke at 3 am my hot flashes making me push away the layers of blankets.
I was thinking about my quilt Cosmos. My early morning mind got me questioning and doubting my decisions about the quilt. Maybe, I thought I should have left it small, the black border finishing it.
But I know not to trust myself when I wake up with my mind racing. To put it at ease, I picked up the short stories I started a few days ago. A Manual For Cleaning Women, by Lucia Berlin. My Jockey, was the name of the story I opened to. It’s about a nurse in an Emergency Room who is caring for a Jockey who fell off his horse. The story is short, really short, just a page an a half. It was a gem. Somehow Berlin was able to say everything she needed to in so few words. It was juicy and mystical and rich and complete.
And it made me think of my quilt. How just because I’ve never done it before, never really even been able to imagine it, doesn’t mean I couldn’t make a quilt that was too small to use, but could hang on a wall. Maybe that was Cosmos before I added the other fabric onto it.
But as I lay in bed picturing the quilt. I knew it looked good small, but I also knew that it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t done. Like it was a few paragraphs short. It didn’t say, Cosmos, until I added those extra pieces of fabric.
I read a couple of more stories then fell into an untroubled sleep.
This morning, when I hung the completed quilt front on my wall to look at it, it spoke to me in its language of color shape and line. Reaching out and reaching in, embracing worlds. Doing just what I wanted it to do.
Way cool, Maria!
Maria, you have bridged the gap beautifully with the black and white print added to the black band around the centre section of the quilt. I love the tiny brown lines on the solid black ground, taking the eye outward to the next portion of the quilt. And then the mind asks…why those two prints on the final border. Wonder what they are doing there? It looks very well balanced to me. We do get stuck at times and then, unstuck.
SandyP in Canada
That’s just what I was hoping the mind would do Sandy. I had those two pieces that came from a quilt top someone sent me. And those color combinations and the shape was something I knew I wanted to use when I first finished the inside of the quilt. And yes, they ask a question instead of answering it.
HI Maria, well I haven’t checked in for a few days and it was great to see the progression of your thoughts and ideas on working on ‘Cosmos’. Great to think it started with my bag of tiny scraps that I wasn’t sure you could use, then another readers family faded tablecloth, then the celestial dark blanket given by someone else – and who knows the history of some of the other fabrics included in the border strips.
It turned out brilliantly, and so exciting to see how many of your readers love this new set of ideas too! Thanks for sharing info about the nature book also, sounds fascinating.
Hannah
Hannah, that bag of scraps and tablecloth has led me in a whole new direction! I have to thank you again…
Maria, It’s a gorgeous quilt I love it! I like how it is different then some others you have made. I am fighting the desire to buy it. Tess
It is, juicy, mystical, rich and complete ! Oh and let me add BEAUTIFUL ! I think of it as your Cosmos Jockey !
Maria,
I love how this quilt has weaved its way through your life in the new year. Very nice!
Susie
stunning, Maria. So balanced and beautiful…….definitely cosmos! The white, although not what you would normally use……..is perfect. I bet this one was really a challenge because of the white.
Susan M
It was a challenge to use the white Susan. But it was begging for it. Nothing else would do. I think part of my resistance is just that I’m not used to seeing so much white in my work.
Beautiful piece of art Maria. I love where you referred to the “language of color, shape and line”. Exactly how I experience art (whether natural or man made)- in color shape and line. A language spoken and received in silence, from the eyes to the soul. The language of color shape and line….You speak it well. And my eyes love to listen!
Oh that’s nice Lois, spoken in silence from eyes to soul. What a poetic perfect way of putting it.
Isn’t it just like everything else..when we deviate from our comfort zone we wake in the middle of the night and see only ‘mistakes’.
I think its grand. It hints of something beyond the known, Other worlds? White space instead of black holes?
Who knows!
Congratulations.
I like that it leaves you thinking Jonne.
Maria,
I love the whole effect of Cosmos. I thought of it as the story within the story. Glad you kept it going.