Since 1981, we have occupied seven homes. In every single one, if the kitchen was in bad shape and we could afford it, we renovated it. The children and I were talking the other day about this. The kitchen is and has always been the center of our home life. It is where we explore cuisines, share our troubles, joys, and successes, enjoy a good bottle of wine, and talk about our past, present, and futures. It has been a place of laughter and tears, food and water fights, canning and science experiments, welcoming babies and friends...and a place of creativity. Most of all, it is a place of memories.
We probably all have memories of favorite foods growing up. My fondest is apricot bars that my grandmother made at Thanksgiving and Christmas. As a very young girl, I remember being at her home for holidays. Everyone was socializing in the living room. I was in the dining room stealing apricot bars off the cookie platter and carefully rearranging everything so no one would notice.
One of many of my children's fondest memories of favorite food is sticky buns. Of course, this came up in the conversation. So this morning, I began to help them recollect. It had been a while.
Last night was the final Ribbon Quilt class. I forgot the cord to my machine, so I spent the evening cutting out pieces for a paper-pieced star and thoroughly enjoying what the other women had accomplished. First to share was Ann. After hanging her pieces on a design wall, there was an explosion of color and design.
Jorja's colors were so soothing and earthy. I can't wait to see what this becomes.
And finally, Mindy's ribbons. She had completed quite a lot of ribbons in both the warm and cool color families. She was thinking that she might even have enough for two separate projects. We all agreed to get together in a month or so and share our finished projects. That will be so exciting!
Well, the sticky buns were done, the children were anxiously waiting for them to cool off, so I went upstairs to contemplate my ribbon quilt.
I tend to dream about projects I'm working on. Do you? Often, I see the finished piece before I even start. I have learned that it pays off to follow these dream leads. I'm sure my head was just swimming with stripes after sewing ribbons for two weeks. Then I dreamed about stars and stripes and thought I would incorporate a star into my quilt. So, I sewed the star together, decided I liked the feel, and got out my trusty seam ripper. I separated the two halves of the quilt and will set the star in the middle. Here's what I have so far.
3 comments:
and why do I live >3000 miles away?
Thanks for posting these pictures! The mere deciding where to place which strip of color is turning into a very big deal in my life - almost a spiritual journey. I can't wait to finish this project, just to get it done. I'm titling this one "Letting go of the Chaos Theory".
The Chaos Theory defined is small differences in initial conditions yield widely diverging outcomes, rendering long-term prediction impossible. I have no idea how this quilt will end up and I'm working hard to let go of the belief that their could be a "wrong way."
Ann, I struggled most with the first cut. Then the issue became measuring and ripping seams apart so everything would line up.
Absolutely love the title of your quilt. With this quilt, I don't believe there is a wrong way. I often find myself simply being with a quilt in progress and waiting patiently, sitting with my questions about where to go from here until I have "lived into the answer." It reminds me of a verse of Rilke...apply this wisdom to your quilting.
"...bear with patience all that is unresolved in your heart, and try to love the questions themselves. as if they were rooms yet to enter or books written in a foreign language. Don't dig for answers that can't be given you yet: you cannot live them now. For everything must be lived. Live the questions now, perhaps then, someday, you will gradually, without noticing, live into the answer."
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