Small art quilt

So the challenge is to make a small art quilt before the end of the month. I put the label on the wedding quilt and now my only excuse for not starting a new quilt is the UFOs -- since when do UFOs stop a new project? And on a late winter day which was deep gray, raining and with the Met's live broadcast being Lucia de Lamamoor -- is there a better aftenoon for dealing with ideas, fabric, transferred photos?

The above is what I laid out yesterday to contemplate. I had a feeling I shouldn't use all the pretty, sherbet-y colors but then this morning I took away the lightest fabric and tried the following and left it to simmer in the mind while I did some work during the morning.

When I set to work later I tried other fabrics but decided to go with these and as I fixed the circular bit, I wondered why I was thinking of those old ladies who really lived rather colorless lives, in such romantic colors. Maybe, thought I, it's what have -- but no, that's not the answer. I have nice dark fabrics in interesing dyes, it could have been very dark but, somehow that's not what I wanted to do. I also decided I don't want the buttons but some interesting twine I bought in Thaliand some time ago.

What I do know is I want to quilt it with double helixes -- the matrilineal DNA -- for these are five first daughters -- all in a line.

Does being a first daughter matter? Some psychologists believe birth rank matters a great deal. I think first daughters are supposed to be resposible an a bit bossy -- but that comes from a time of large families. The three oldest of this line were from large families, I don't know without research how many were in the oldest family, in the next to oldest [my grandmother -- the bonneted woman] was oldest of seven, my mother oldest of five. But thereafter only two per family. So it wasn't a matter of caring for younger siblings. But I do have a great sense of responsibility and my oldest daughter has the same [but so, in fact, does my second daughter] So this is not exactly a psychological proof.

Butwhat we do share is matrilineal DNA giving us high blood pressure, congestive heart disaease. What a cheery thought! I wonder if scientists will eventually discover genes for positive traits... Hmm ...