My Emotional Little Quilt 2

This quilt is all about love. Love of my kids, love of my friends, love of childhood moments, love of love, and even the loss of love.

It started as a Carolyn Friedlander Collection Quilt Block 2 Alternate. I was having so much fun learning needleturn appliqué that I didn’t want it to end. When I was thinking about the colors I was going to use, I thought of grass on a hill and the wildflowers that would grow. When it came time to quilt, I put it on a longarm and just thought of the wind whipping in my hair on a day I could fly a kite. I didn’t overthink it, I just started quilting thinking about wind.

Then, the quilt sat for a year or so because I knew I wanted to hand quilt the bottom block. Something I had not yet done. It took a while to feel confident in a design and in my ability. There was some practice beforehand.

While I waited for inspiration to hit me, my marriage fell apart. It wasn’t necessarily unexpected and yet it was still confusing and sad. As we separated and I moved into a new place last summer, I came across it while organizing my new sewing space. I stuck it on a hanger with the rest of my works in progress (WIPs) and didn’t give it another thought until about a month ago.

I pulled it out and draped it over my machine to see if anything sparked. I kept it there, and I would see it everyday and contemplate it for a few minutes here and there. It finally clicked and once I figured out what I wanted, I couldn’t be stopped. I picked it up and hand quilted it over a couple weeks.

I was very intentional in my thinking while I quilted this. I thought of the innocence of childhood, and the simple pleasure of walking barefoot on a grassy hill with wildflowers. I thought of true loves and loves lost. I thought of the quiet spiritual recharging of sitting next to someone special while not having to talk. Being together, enjoying their energy, while thinking of love and beauty to infuse into this creation. I’m not sure why that was important to me at the time, but it was. And I’m really glad it was. While this might be a simple quilt, it holds a lot of memories and feelings for me.

Right after I started the hand quilting on it, my youngest daughter (3yo) told me she really wanted me to make her a quilt that she could hang on her wall. I don’t yet have any quilts I’ve hung, so this was a very peculiar and special request from her. But I realized I would have one for her very soon and that was exciting. I need to put a sleeve on it, and it will be on the wall in her room at my house. The perfect place. My emotional little rascal gets to have my emotional little quilt.

*Please NOTE* – All images have been heavily filtered to bring out the quilting and texture I wanted to highlight.