One Small Step for Quilting Women Kind

My travels led me to where I am today. Sometimes these steps have felt painful, difficult, but led me to greater happiness and opportunities. ~ Diana Ross

Another quilt day has come and gone, and this weeks’ focus was basting the quilt.  Not fun work, basting.  It’s very simple…stitch an “outline” of the applique piece 1/4” inside the cut piece, all the way around until you have a line of stitching that follows the exact line of your cut piece.  Tedious doesn’t even begin to describe the process that is basting this piece.

I have to confess, at first, I was all gripes about the basing.  Its slow going!  After more than 2 hours (most of that procrastinating!) I sat back and saw how little I had accomplished.  Not only that, I was getting mired down with the desire for perfection, which is rediculous!  And then something brilliant came to mind…this is a necessary step to get where I want to go.  With that single thought I stopped my griping, my fingers began to fly and by the end of the day, I had basted almost a third of the piece.

I’m known to refer to quilting as my zen.  When life feels overwhelming, I know I can go into the quilt room and find an inner peace I won’t find anywhere else.  With this project, I’ve found a new zen that I’m enjoying just as much as quilting.  No, it’s not basting…its researching quotes!   At the end of each week I take some time to reflect on where I am with my piece and relate them to my experiences as Lourdes friend.  What would she think?  What advice or thoughts would she add to the work that would be meaningful?  This is where the quotes come from.

This week’s quote on “steps” was appropriate, especially since I’m in the middle of a step that’s not much fun, but necessary.   It may sound trite, but taking a long journey requires one step at a time.  To be sure, there are a lot of quotes on steps.  But when I came across the quote above from Diana Ross, I knew I had a winner.  Lourdes loved music and loved enduring spirit.  I know she would have loved this quote as well.

Aloha,

Wendy

Cut peice, pre-basting.

Let the basting begin!

And then, more basting!

Et voila…1/3rd complete.

And So It Begins!

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end. ~Seneca

***

Quilt day!  My favorite day of the month.  It’s when I have an entire day to quilt with my bestie, Stephanie, and my sister.  On a typical quilt day you’ll find us working on a variety of projects for friends and family – holiday gifts, “big boy” quilts, and new baby quilts.  But this month’s quilt day was different.  Stephanie’s son (affectionately referred to as “Thing 1” and my adopted nephew) was working on a service project for Boy Scouts and I was eager to start the first Hawaiian quilt.  Given that we would also be celebrating Memorial Day this weekend, it seemed fitting that our projects were in service of others.

With my sister absent, we only needed to make room for two sewing stations.  Two sewing stations, one work table, an ironing board, and a myriad of snacks!  With my mom on board to keep us fed and hydrated, we started in on our projects – the first Hawaiian Quilt for me, and a raffle quilt my “nephew” is making to earn money so he can attend the Boy Scouts annual Jamboree.

My hat is off to Stephanie!  Thing 1 is a young quilter at the tender age of 13.  Although I’m an expert quilter, it was as if she had two novices on her hands.  Guiding a new quilter on their first project can be overwhelming.  They require a lot of attention.  They tend to be concerned about every stitch, every seam, and every point.  More than once, Thing 1 announced that he had messed up.   And while he was agonizing over his every stitch (he was doing great, btw), I was sitting across from him, doing the same.

The Hawaiian quilt is a new beginning for me as a quilter!  The first step, creating your pattern template, is easy, perhaps designed to lull you into a false sense of calm.  As I sat tracing my pattern, my palms began to sweat.  Step number two isn’t so easy, this is where you transfer the pattern to a piece of fabric that has been folded into submission.  After digesting and dissecting the instructions, I decided I would add an extra step and transfer my pattern to a piece of freezer paper (old quilter’s trick) and iron it onto my fabric.  Step number three, the cutting, is heart-stopping!  Stephanie had to practically hold my sweaty hands through the cutting.  As you can see from the photos below, I successfully cut the first quilt out.  Not a small thing since it’s like cutting paper snowflakes.  The fear comes when you cut away that last bit of fabric and start to unfold your piece.  I threw a little prayer up to Lourdes that I had folded and cut properly, resulting in one elegant, intricate piece of fabric, rather than six individual pieces.  I can hear Lourdes saying, “If you properly prepared, it will be fine.”

Photos of Saturdays work are posted below.  On Memorial Day, I laid the pieces out one final time to admire the weekends work and take time to remember those I’ve lost too soon…Lourdes, my father, and Great Minnie, my grandmother.  I hope they have found the “piece” that I find when quilting.

Creating the pattern template

Template applied to the folded fabric

Transferring the pattern to the fabric

Transferring the pattern to the fabric

Cutting the fabric…follow the lines for success!

Cuts complete, fabric ready for basting!

A quilt (project) is born

Our death is not an end if we can live on in our children and the younger generation.  For they are us, our bodies are only wilted leaves on the tree of life.  ~Albert Einstein

***

When I first learned that Lourdes had suffered another aneurysm, I immediately thought “I’ll make her a quilt.”  I’m a quilter; that’s what we do.  We make quilts to celebrate life’s moments — a baby born, the joining of two hearts in marriage, milestone birthdays, and to help comfort loved ones when ill.   We love with fabric, joining the pieces together to create something beautiful that will be cherished for a lifetime.

A quilter understands that one small scrap of fabric has no value.  It’s the joining of those small scraps that creates significance –the ability to celebrate life, heal wounds, and share our hearts.  When I think of Lourdes, I think of a scrap quilt – a beautiful, warm and beloved thing that is a sum of its parts.  Much like a quilter, Lourdes understood the importance of life’s small “scraps,” those little moments.

When I learned of Lourdes passing, I immediately thought “I’ll make her a quilt.”  This is an odd thought for a quilter, as the one moment in life we do not mark with a quilt is death.  In the 1800’s it wasn’t uncommon for families to cloak their loved ones in a beloved quilt before burial, so they would cross to the other side wrapped in love.  The Lourdes Cates Quilt Project is my way of ensuring that Lourdes will continue to wrap others in love.

A Quilt Project Is Born

When I work on a scrap quilt, I often don’t have a plan.  This is unique in the world of quilting — most quilters are very organized, following a very clear set of steps to get from inception to completion.  One of my favorite ways to create a quilt is to sit down at my machine with no plan, no pattern, just a stack of scraps.  I trust my instincts and surrender to the fabric, allowing the quilt to evolve into what it’s meant to be.  This is very fitting given the Hawaiian tradition of quilting, where the beauty of the quilt is thought to originate from the spirit (mana) of the design rather than the stitches created by the quilter’s hand.

The Lourdes Cates Quilt Project is my scrap quilt.  I have no idea where this project will take me, how many people will participate, or who the ultimate owners of these works will be.  There are some things I do know.  The quilts will be used to raise money for The Brain Aneurysm Foundation, they will celebrate Lourdes’ love of her heritage, which was important to her, and they will all be made with love.

Quilters – if you would like to participate in the project, please send mail to quiltproject@hotmail.com.  I understand that a quilt of this type will be a labor of love.  Quilters and crafters of all skill levels are welcome – I have a number of traditional patterns I can share with you and will be happy to provide a guiding hand if you need assistance with your quilt.

Admirers of quilts / lovers of Lourdes – please participate by following this blog.  I plan on posting progress reports on each of the quilts along the way.  As each piece is completed, I’ll work with the designer to determine if the quilt will be auctioned or raffled, with all proceeds benefiting The Brain Aneurysm Foundation.

Aloha,

Wendy