Lovedust

July was a bumpy month over at Quiltunes. At the end of June, I was struck by a sudden and rare autoimmune illness that left my extremities numb and heavy — not exactly conducive to doing much of anything, let alone technical sewing or hiking to photograph wildflowers. Not to mention the stresses of hospitalization and navigating the medical diagnosis and billing systems. And although internally I have always felt like I am a unique person, this rare syndrome has really made me stand out in ways I was woefully unprepared for. It is super hard to be ill and it is yet another challenge to not be able to do the activities that always make you feel better no matter what else is going on in your world, body, mind, heart and soul. And I will recover with patience and perseverance. This is not my new normal and I will never, ever forget this incident or take my health for granted. I will never again complain about a blister, a mosquito bite or the weight of my backpack or kayak when I return to my regular activity level in a few months. (I have asked my husband to straighten me out should I get whiny about something minor when we are out on adventures.)

In light of being unable to sew, knit or hike, and because I have not developed a good tolerance for binge-watching, I decided to use some of my newfound free time to research quilting techniques. I feel like at this juncture in my quilting journey, I am proficient and comfortable enough with my skills at piecing quilt tops together but do not feel this level of confidence when it comes to quilting my work. I am cognizant that artistic development is a lifelong process and quilting is an area where I will spend many a year learning and practicing. Part of my reservation is the intimidation factor: it can be daunting to take something you’ve spent loads of time and fabric on and make another design on top of it. Second, I own standard size sewing machines so I feel a bit limited when it comes to my ability to quilt large projects or overall designs that require extensive movement of the quilt. HOWEVER, I really do feel like there is a certain je ne sais quoi (oh yeah, look at my high school level French) that comes from doing all of the work on a quilt. I love the indescribable feeling I get when I know I made every stitch on a quilt, akin to the very specific satisfaction you get on a Friday night after a long week of work when it is finally time to sit down with a martini in hand and some badass music on the stereo as a reward for the hard work that is done.

9 library books later (curbside pickup, you are the best thing since library books were delivered by mule to your home!), I can say with full confidence that although I have the deepest admiration for Angela Walters and Jacquie Gering, I am doubtful I will ever get to that level of quilting. My mind is overwhelmed with their designs alone; I don’t foresee a future wherein I am able to get that much thread onto a quilt top. I did glean a lot of ideas and techniques from all of the books and will test them out but don’t anticipate quilts full of feathers and curlicue designs from me anytime soon.

This quilt was started P.I. (pre-illness) out of pieces that I had done years ago and taped above my cutting table. I utilize this space as a design wall since I work in a room without full size walls. Funny enough, the reason that these pieces were just hanging there is because I had this ridiculous hang up when I first made them which had to do with a color combination that I thought looked “too collegiate” and I couldn’t unsee it. Anyhow, it is a positive thing that I had this momentary neurosis because I was able to create something even better out of the orphan blocks.

This quilt is a wedding gift for friends in Oregon. Unfortunately we were unable to make it to the celebration but I feel it is important to recognize and celebrate this special union. Suddenly I saw these overlooked pieces in a new light and knew that with additional blocks, I could create something bigger and better. I am super grateful for a friend’s suggestion to maximize negative space which really makes the blocks stand out. A lot of the fabric in this piece is Essex Linen which I am majorly in love with both for the weight and texture it adds. I first used this linen in JC Squared and I am positively crazy about it; I’m creating a stockpile because it is hard to find.

I started off creating this quilt listening to the band Luna. Luna was/is (not sure what their current reunion status is) a band I first heard in the mid 90’s that has a dreamy, ethereal space pop sound. I had never heard a band use the words diazepam, telly or reference the Tamil Tigers in lyrics before. (Oh, wikipedia tells me that the lead singer Dean Warham went to Harvard so that explains this.) And as the name suggests, the music is kind of spacey. I picked Luna for a couple of reasons. One, I remember a conversation the groom and I once had about this band; as Luna is somewhat obscure, this stands out. Two, I have six albums of Luna or iterations of Luna members (including Galaxie 500) and it had been a long time since I had listened to any. I gave every album at least one spin and then it was onward to other cosmic music. Of course the king of spacey rock/pop was David Bowie so I had to listen to some Bowie. And whenever I listen to Bowie, I always have to follow up with a nightcap of the song “Bowie’s in space” by Flight of the Conchords — one of the greatest parody songs of all time. Blame it on comet NEOwise, I was in the mood for space.

Perhaps because all of my newfound knowledge from the library book tower was front and center in my cranium, I was definitely more methodical and focused with the quilting design on this project than usual . I decided that this piece would look great with a lot of linear matchstick quilting, which means sewing a lot of hypnotic lines back and forth. And because “Lovedust” is all solid fabrics, I wanted to add some texture and movement through the quilting. Halfway through the time intensive part of quilting, it became obvious that I literally needed to change my tunes to something more grounded and lively. It was necessary, in the words of the amazing Jon Cleary, to pump it up. First up was the New Orleans Nightcrawlers “Atmosphere” (still space themed) because I always listen to brass bands on Fridays. Always. Saturday afternoon I turned on some raucous guitar music, the Black Keys and Chris Whitley, and rocked out. Today I finished up this piece with some good old funky Meters because they are my absolute favorite. MY FAVORITE!

“Lovedust” was a super fun piece to make! I truly enjoyed every minute I spent creating this. Making and quilting is good medicine for me, even if it is different right now. And I am super proud of the quilting on this, especially given that I still have numbness in my extremities. Damn, I really love everything about this quilt! If we were having a county fair this year, I would enter this piece before gifting it. This piece is serendipitous, it just came together for me when I needed it most. I am amazed that the bulk of these blocks languished on a wall for years before the inspiration arrived, which makes me wonder what I else I have laying around that I could finish up…

Stay tuned and stay funky. (My sign off line if I was a DJ.)

Albums listed to: Luna “Bewitched”, “Penthouse”, “Romantica” “Close Cover Before Striking”; Galaxie 500 “On Fire”; Dean Wareham & Britta Phillips “L’avventura”; David Bowie “Heros”; Flight of the Conchords “Flight of the Conchords”; New Orleans Nightcrawlers “Atmosphere”; the Black Keys “El Camino”, “Brothers”; Chris Whitley “Terra Incognita”; The Meters “Rejuvenation”.