Potholder Stories

Tulip on the Windowsill, tells the story of this unusual spring we’re having where the flowers have bloomed early and stayed long, despite the two snowfalls that covered them.

This morning I could feel myself slip into my self-imposed artist residency.

Today I realized that it’s not going to happen because I declare it.  The only difference between it and what I’m doing now is how I think about it.  For me that isn’t going to be like flipping a switch, it’s a gradual process of changing the way I think.

I saw it happen as I decided to make some potholders this morning.

I found myself thinking that I was going to forget about time and get lost in what I was doing.  For each potholder, I would put the colors, shapes, and patterns together to tell a little story.

The old quilt top I cut squares from.

But first I had to find the fabric.  Just one special piece of fabric to begin each potholder story with.  And as I searched my shelves I pulled out the old quilt top.

It was already cut up into a bunch of small chunks from the last few times I used it.  But those times I had been looking for something different than this time.  And today, every piece of fabric I wanted was there.

When the saw the houses toppling at odd angles I knew this was the story of Sheltering In Place and the topsy-turvy world we’re living in right now.

I designed ten potholders today, created ten little fabric stories.  And when the voice in my head broke in saying “no one’s going to buy that”.  I shrugged my shoulders and kept on working.  Either way, these were stories I needed to tell.

Tiger King,  Not the Netflix series, although the name comes from it.  The story of this potholder is of the tiger as King.

 

 

 

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