Thursday, January 10, 2008

Simple quilting

When I'm sitting at the sewing machine just carefully feeding the quilt through to do in-the-ditch quilting, which is basically mindless work, I go off into a sort of meditation. In this picture the latest quilt is being quilted and the 15 minutes of sun with which my apartment is blessed on those winter days when the sun shines, happened to fall on the quilt. For a fuller picture go back about two weeks.

What did I discover in my meditation? That I must be a very simple person with very simple tastes. I quilted simply in the ditch and then diagonally through the blocks; simplicity! This is an extremely simple quilt in concept and execution. And it gives me much pleasure especially during those sunny moments when I could enjoy the variety of colors and think about how I'm always delighted in quilts by how unlikely colors look so good together -- no two blocks in this quilt are the same. I love quilt like that. It's like knowing that no two people are the same. I have to conclude that making this quilt has made me very happy ... and, indeed, it is a very simple happiness. Am I getting wise in my old age or am I returning to a childish pleasure in playing with color? I really don't care which. Sleeping under this quilt and making my bed in the mornings will give me pleasure too. I wish I could give some of these simple pleasures to others.

No comments :