The Perspective of a Quilter

The past two months in our household have been stressful due to the holidays, houseguests, medical emergencies, a car collision, and torrential unrelenting rains, but I try hard to keeping my sewing alive despite distractions like these because sewing is calming to me. It is my yoga. Obviously, though, the sewing cannot be anything too strenuous right now. My random dabbling in the last week or so covers the unrelated topics of sleeves, sheets, classes, and the perspective of a quilter.

I prepped the sleeve to add to a quilt I am entering in an my quilt guild's April show. Obviously this was too strenuous. I cut it too short and am going to have to piece it longer. Aargh. At least I discovered the shortfall before attaching it. And I got to enjoy the zing of the whimsical spotted orange fabric.

Not very exciting but at least productive, I seamed the two bottom corners of the flat sheet from a set so the foot end does not keep coming loose from under the mattress. This also helps me know which is the bottom edge and which are the side edges when I change the sheets. Two seams was apparently the correct level of difficulty in my present state of mind because I did not mess it up. If I did, I thankfully have not noticed it yet.

I started and completed an entire Craftsy class. This is great, as watching half of my Craftsy classes is one of my 2017 quilting goals. The Angela Walters class was a real keeper. It was mesmerizing to watch the designs being stitched but, even better than how to do them (practice, practice, practice is always the answer) she discussed and illustrated when to do them. Her examples of sampler quilts, appliquéd quilts, small block versus big block quilts, medallion quilts, etc. were great thought-provokers. I think this is the first time I have finished a Craftsy class in its entirety. I highly recommend it.

The weather has been gloomy of late with all the rains. To brighten the household a couple days ago at the grocery store I bought an 8-stem bunch of bright, cheery, orange tulips. I brought them home and set them in a tall vase of water and was thrilled that the next day they had all straightened upright and were opening up. The third morning I came downstairs and was aghast that they had sucked up all the water and were sadly drooped over. I felt so guilty that I had not been paying enough attention to add water sooner. To recover that blast of color, I cut the stems short, removed any leaves competing for water, and inserted each stem through a fat straw to see if I could revive the tulip blooms. It worked and they continued to open up. Aren't they gorgeous?

Each bloom was opening far wider than I had ever hoped for.

Two days later they were broader, strikingly vivid, and still going strong. They reminded me of something I could not quite put my finger on. Then it hit me. Those tulips looked very much like some fabric I had in my stash. I rushed to dig it out.

This is a border print by Valori Wells titled Isabella. Granted the flowers on the fabric are poppies, not tulips, but that does not stop me from enjoying both fabric and flower and associating them with each other.

I also have two yards of a coordinating floral that is very striking as well. Each bloom is about 3" - 4" across. Now I am excited that I resurrected these pieces and want to make something out of them.

It then occurred to me I really must have the perspective of a quilter. In my brain the flower imitated the fabric, not that the fabric was inspired by the flower. I sure hope Mother Nature does not get mad at me for not giving her full credit. I do not know how much more rain I can take! For right this moment, the sun has come out today (not tomorrow as that Annie song tells us) so perhaps Mother Nature is OK with me. Now I will zot on over to Let's Bee Social #161 and luxuriate in all the luscious colors of the rainbow reindeer romping there.