With a Little Help From My Friends

Don’t we all get by with a lot of help from our friends? I know that I do! Not to be a braggard but I’ve got some extra super friends and I am thankful every hour for each and every one of them. They bring unquantifiable amounts of joy, inspiration, laughter and good food into my life. I am so, so grateful to have strong lifelong friendships despite, in many cases, our physical distances.

This project languished in my closet while I ruminated, alright obsessed, over how to finish it. I started the blocks a couple of years ago as a Saturday Sampler. I was drawn to the unique pattern as both a good skill builder and the traditional blocks set in a non-traditional setting. This pattern proved a challenge as it was chock full of 1/8″ increments. I suffer from a major aversion to this tiny fraction but as I worked through 12 months of block making, I became a smidge less grouchy about a number that really should be reserved for precision surgeries and engineering.

Someone once asked what my favorite part of the quilting process is and I answered “finishing”. Don’t get me wrong, I love* almost everything about quilting, but what I love most of all is when a project is done and I can get it out in the world. I am not a maker with lots of UFOs (unfinished objects for those unfamiliar with craft acronyms). In fact, UFOs stress me the hell out. I have always been a person who gets things done, which is both a strength and a weakness. In the past I have rushed completion for the sake of closure and I really did not want to make that mistake here. *Love is a strong word for how I feel about cutting and ironing. These are more like tasks I welcome as part of the process.

Here is some insight into my thought stream every time I looked at this quilt: EEK, SO BIG. EGAD, SO MUCH BLANK SPACE. And repeat like a scratched cd stuck on the worst lyric! Between the size and all that gray, I felt completely stuck. I really wanted to make every stitch on this because this quilt belongs to a special family, not in my closet. This is (yet again) where assistance from creative friends come in. After countless attempts and time spent huffing and puffing away in frustration, I paraded it around for opinions. One was to stitch some wavy lines across. Two, was to sew vertical stripes the width of the walking foot across the entire top. Ding ding ding! The combination of these ideas allowed me to finish this special quilt all by myself. And, pat on the back here, accomplish all of this on a regular size sewing machine.

When I first started this quilt, I did not have a recipient in mind. About halfway through the block construction, a dear childhood friend of mine lost a daughter. Everyone who met Lucy knew how extraordinary she was and I am no exception. The colors in the blocks remind me of her favorite movies: Alice in Wonderland and anything starring Muppets. Impeccable taste! To make a more personalized quilt for the family, I found some limited edition Alice in Wonderland fabric by Rifle Paper Company for the backing. The back is not always an important element in the quilt design, but here it really is. To add a bit more pizazz to all that gray, I quilted with a rainbow variegated thread.

Lucy loved music and danced with enthusiasm and joy. Once we were at a concert in the park with a Beatles cover band (dressed in full-on Sgt. Peppers attire, in 90 degree heat) and Lucy danced the entire show. Everyone around her could feel her happiness. Naturally, the tunes behind this quilt are the Beatles.

I am fascinated by stories of people who saw the Beatles or got wrapped up in Beatlemania. The arrival of the Beatles is such a poignant moment in history. When the Beatles stormed the world, everything from musicians on TV, band merchandise, media attention, stadium shows and those crazed fans was revolutionary. My dad has a great Beatles story that involves a Vespa and a trip from the Denver airport to meet the plane, followed by a scooter ride up to Red Rocks Amphitheater for the show. For those familiar with the topography of metro Denver, this is pretty crazy. My Beatles story, I mean aside from listening to them my entire life, is that I have seen 1.5 Beatles in concert. I scored a free ticket to a Wings reunion, which exceeded whatever expectations I had. I also saw Ravi Shankar (the fractional Beatle in my calculation) circa 1998 in Seattle, which was awesome and also free. Lucky me to see 1.5 Beatles at no cost!

My quilting time was a Beatles binge of epic proportions: I listened to a lifetime of Beatles albums in the span of a couple weeks. Thankfully, there is so much variety in the Beatles catalog from teeny bop to trippy that I was never bored. Man, there are some super weird Beatles song out there. It amazes me that the same band wrote both “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” or “Eleanor Rigby”. I’ve spent my entire life listening to the Beatles that the band feels almost familial. I feel close to them in a strange way, as if I could simply approach Sir Paul and have tea to discuss the topics of the day. Does anyone else feel this kinship with the world’s most influential band?

I’m thrilled that I was able to overcome my numerous issues and complete this quilt with some help from my friends. Whenever I’m stuck, I know that I can count on them for guidance or a good laugh. Their insight allowed me to finish this quilt, which I thoroughly enjoyed working on. Not to mention that all of the time listening to the Beatles and thinking about people I love was restorative and a great distraction from current affairs. Quilting is healing and I hope that this blanket provides some comfort to a beautiful family. We all get by with help from our friends.

In case you are wondering, it is George.

Albums listened to, all by the Beatles: “Revolver”, “Abbey Road”, “The White Album”, “Rubber Soul”, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, “Yellow Submarine”, “Help”, “Let it Be” and “1”.