I walked slowly around my studio looking for a piece of fabric that would be the first in a new quilt.
This is often how I start a new quilt, finding inspiration. Sometimes it’s a piece of fabric I just got, sometimes it’s one I’ve had for years and it finally calls out to me.
Today it was a scarf.
My scarf, that I’ve had for over 35 years. It was the first gift my first boyfriend(and later ex-husband) gave to me when I was 17 years old.
I have very little if anything from that time in my life. I’m not one to keep things. But I kept the scarf all these years because it reminded me of who I was then. And the feeling that I had so much time ahead of me.
But today, when I saw it sitting on my shelf with my other fabric, I knew it was the day to cut it up and transform it into something new.
Kenna just sent me a box full of her wonderful quilting fabrics and when I put the two together it felt like alchemy to me.
The transformation was instantaneous.
Then I found two pieces of batik fabric that I bought when I was in India. They made the pinks and turquoise in the scarf pop! I cut them into triangles and put them on top and bottom of the square…..
….then put the other two triangles on the sides, filling in the space around them.
When I got to this point, I was creatively spent. So I stopped working on the quilt and finished sewing last weeks potholders.
Even though I’m not done with it yet, I already know the name of this quilt. It’s called Paradigm Shift.
This one is calling me already. Can I possibly own this upon finishing?
Thank Linda, I’ll email you about it. I have one other person who asked about it before getting your comment.
Hmmmm, absolutely gorgeous, love the composition and colours and patterns, Maria; Lucky Linda!
paradigm shift to me involves a break with an old tradition or outdated thinking, but today’s Maria couldn’t have happened without the earlier one, like the saying by Madeleine L’Engle: ‘the great thing about getting older is that you don’t lose all the other ages you’ve been.’ So l think of this one as
Evolutionary, Maria
xx Sabina
I was just talking to a friend today Sabina and we were comparing what I think of as the first part of my life with who I am now. We were saying it was like the first part was the stuff before the real story, the stuff you’d edit out. We laughed about that.