4 Hour Quilt

Hubby took P away for the weekend, so I've been home alone.  3.5 days to my lonesome.  I had SO much paperwork to do!!  I typed and wrote and wrote and typed and typed some more.  There were LOTS of quilt show phone calls to answer, and a number of challenge quilts have been delivered to my door.  Best of the Valley has been the order of the day.

All the while, a Call for Entry swirled around in the back of my mind.  Remember the "Tranquility" quilt that I made at the end of January?  This Call was for a complementary exhibit, entitled "Turmoil."  Well, we've had a bit of that over the past few month, believe you me.  When I was stitching Oceans, I had no desire to even think of making a Turmoil quilt, but apparently my subconscious has been in overdrive.  Today is the deadline, 10pm CST.

Yesterday afternoon, I blew into my studio/disaster zone, and started pulling fabrics.  Actually, I'd already pulled out one "just in case." 

I cut a piece 40" x 40", then cut a piece of batting to fit.  Then I dove into my bin of solids, and looked for somber/unpleasant fabric to stitch on top.

 Most of my fabrics are nice clear colors, that make me happy.  Happy was not the intent of this quilt.  Oh, look!  There's some piecework that I put together when my son moved to NM for 6 weeks, that will work!

I slapped and stitched and slapped and stitched some more.  All the while, I had Scripture running through my brain.  The specific portion that I kept focusing on was from Isaiah 57:

Peace, peace to him who is far and to him who is near,”
Says the Lord, “and I will heal him.”

But the wicked are like the tossing sea,
For it cannot be quiet,
And its waters toss up refuse and mud.“There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”  Isaiah 57:19-21

I wasn't focusing on the "wicked," I was thinking "no peace."  I worked frantically and desperately, and put together a piece that was almost done.  It needed something.

 The white ribbon seemed like something should be attached to it.  Ironically, I had a block from a Cynthia Corbin class in 2009.  The assignment had been to use ugly fabric and break ALL the quilting rules we could possibly break.  I was amused to see that the "ugly" colors were the same as the ones in yesterday's quilt.

 But it was too big, too busy, too "not right."  However, it gave me the title, which is "Hanging By A Thread."  And the Scripture meditation had me thinking of separation from God, and what if that was me, barely hanging onto Him...

 Yep.  A little person is just the thing.  But I don't want it to be a ghostly white person...maybe I have some busy/distracting/fractured fabric?  Oh, look!  I do!  This is the top, all quilted and ready to photograph.

And yet, it needed something more...

Perhaps some hurried, rushed, big-stitch quilting?  I didn't bind it, that would be too complete, too planned, too orderly...  I didn't do much quilting, and I left the needle in, because, well, just because.

And I didn't clip threads or square seams or do any of the detail work that I am so fond of. 

And the funny thing is, this quilt works.  It accomplishes exactly what I set out to accomplish.  Here is my Artist Statement:

"Hanging By A Thread"

Turmoil/Chaos/Disorder:  All are the exact opposite of the God of creation, who brings order to all things.  To my way of thinking, turmoil is His opposite.  He is not a god of chaos.  Good things go bad when rushed, hurried, or not thought through.  My best quilts are peaceful creations, with careful detail and/or meticulous handwork.  But throw the rules out the window?  My work disintegrates into a disjointed mess.  This quilt is a glimpse of what my life would look like, were I to be separated or cut free from the God of salvation.

When I showed this to my youngest son, he said, "Nailed it, Mom!"  woohoo!

I will be surprised if it is accepted as part of the exhibit, but I have to say that making it was quite cathartic.  My granddaughter returns this evening, well, in a bit over an hour from now, and I am thankful that I had a few uninterrupted hours of sewing, before going back to focusing on her.

And there you go...I actually made a quilt in February!!

P.S.  I put in a few more big stitch quilting stitches this afternoon, as I was waiting for the car to be smogged.  The technician looked at the quilt...actually, he looked a bit confused...and asked, "You're making a blanket?"  I laughed, and told him, "It's 'Art.'  It's supposed to be 'Turmoil.' "  He shook his head and went back to work.  I took that to mean that it's a bit of a mess and too much chaos to make him comfortable. 

Like my son said, "Nailed it!"  :)