I don’t think this is going to become a quilt any time soon. Here’s a quick quilt story for you: when I was young in the 1970’s, crafting was abundant and my mom was always making stuff. I wanted to make stuff too, so I went into my closet in the middle of the night with a pair of scissors and cut up all my clothes. You know, as you do. I spent a whole summer with a paper grocery bag full of 6” squares next to my lawn chair, earnestly toiling and stitching. The resulting hand-pieced quilt top (never actually quilted, I’m sorry to report) was sloppy and, while tender in its innocence, pretty unappealing. Over the years, there was some learning--visiting Grandma and getting schooled in how to make quilts the right way--and then some informed unlearning--the happy discovery of Gee’s Bend and the aesthetic of Denyse Schmidt. I found out there are all kinds of ways to sew fabric together, and they are all good. But here’s where I am right now: I’m having a hard time with wonkiness.
I was way, way inspired by a pattern photo, hoo boy! I went straight to the stash and cut up all my clothes. By the way, the cutting up part? Seriously fun. I attacked this pile of scraps with vigor and zeal, and reduced it to a heap of strips in every angle, and then dove in.
Two things now—first, the pattern [there are so many inspiring patterns in this book, by the way, and I will probably attempt and fail several more of them] is great. Incidentally, it also provides instructions for making this quilt “perfect”, if that’s how you roll, and that’s totally how I would roll now if the fabric weren’t already all cut up. But that was not my plan going in. No, I was going to fly by the seat of my pants, fling this thing together in a mad burst of creativity, threads a-flying. No pinning, no measuring. Out the window, rules! See ya!
Also, I am aware that I have taken the degree of “wonkiness” a good deal further than perhaps the designer intended, and let me say here, too, that a finished wonky-block quilt made by somebody else is a thing of beauty indeed and I admire it and wish I could go there, but right now, I can’t. I seem to have gotten to the point where I like it when the seams are straight and all the corners line up and things are orderly. I mentioned this to a friend who knows me well, and she gasped. Well, you have to let yourself evolve, right?
So, I folded these three blocks up neatly and rolled all the every-angled strips into a fussy and organized jelly-roll sort of thing and with pinkies in the air tucked it all very tidily into a bag to await the day I am once again prepared to let my freak flag fly. Meanwhile, I guess I am into measuring things now, which is so weird it’s like I don’t recognize myself.
