Making Another Meditation Mat, Rising Flowers and Butterflies

I began making my second Meditation Mat today.  I already have a list of people who are interested in them.

I wanted to begin making my new Meditation Mat using scarps like I did the first one I made last month.  But when I got to my studio, a piece of fabric came to mind that I’ve had for so long and just love.

I’ve tried to use the fabric in quilts more than once, but it just never worked out.  This time I knew it would.  So I started with the Deco style, rising flowers by simply cutting it to size and sewing a pencil-line pink border around it.

Then I got to the scraps.

I dumped my bag of green scraps on the studio floor, picked through them for the ones I wanted to use, then ironed them and organized them by size.

There is magic in the scraps.

Magic in not knowing how they will come together and what they will look like.  Unlike the center piece that I chose, which is known, they are the unknown.

These scraps have come from all over the country, sent by so many of you.   Each piece has its own   history. They come together here in my studio in a one-of-a-kind creation.

What I create from them can’t be reproduced.  One has is from a nurses scrub that has a fade mark from where the pocket use to be.  Some of these fabrics may no longer even exist.

I sewed the long scraps of fabric together trusting they would do what I wanted them to.  Knowing they would lead me in a direction I might not have otherwise gone.

When I had a block of fabric the right size, I cut it in half and sewed it to each side of the rising flowers.

After that came the butterflies.  I never expected butterflies, but there they were, just right in color and content.

I finished the top of my Meditation Mat with some more butterflies  and a strip of green fabric around it all.  ( Beside it being the perfect color I knew the green border was right because I had them already cut and two were the exact length of the Meditation Mat).

That the backing for my Meditation Mat under it.   I’ll finish sewing it all together tomorrow.