If I listen, my quilts tell me what they want.
Today it was another square or two. I made them with the small pieces of fabric that I had left over from making the quilt so far. A piece of the plaid, some of the tan corduroy, the last slice of fish fabric, and a few other pieces from my scrap bin that had similar colors.
What I did with them next would come from a feeling. I wanted to surround them with fabric that would give me the same feeling I had when I surrounded the first square with the plaid.
It turned out to be a piece of denim stained and wonderfully faded. I don’t remember who sent it to me, but I do remember her note saying that she wasn’t going to send it because of the stains but thought I’d like the fading.
She was right.
The only way for me to work with a piece of fabric like this, one that is so special, is for me to cut it up. That way I don’t get too fussy about the fade marks and where and how they will be used. I used the stains to dictate where to cut. I didn’t want them in the quilt, so I cut around them. That left me with smaller pieces of fabric to work with.
The fading is subtle, it’s the kind of thing that a person might not see at first, but the more they look at the quilt, at some point it will appear to them, like a surprise.
After making two squares and sewing them onto the quilt, I can see that I’ll need one or two more. So I’ll know where to start tomorrow.
As I was working on the quilt today and added the blueish/green fabric above and below the squares, the words Under the Sea came into my head.
It’s not just the fish fabric, which I chose for its colors, not the content. But when I look down at the quilt on my studio floor, it makes me think of looking into the pond in the back pasture and all the plants and animals who live there.
I saw my first newt in the pond this afternoon. It is rippling with life.
I like the self knowledge in your line “The only way for me to work with a piece of fabric like this, one that is so special, is for me to cut it up”. It reminds me of something our elementary school art teacher assigned to a class full of perfectionists. She had them make an abstract painting, then cut it up and use the pieces to make a new piece of art. They tried to argue their way out of it but she held firm and the art that resulted was stunning.
Ah, that’s a wonderful exercise and way to create Trish. It really is so much about letting go as much as control.