A rainbow quilt top and other journeys

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Rainbow quilt top done!

I don't know exactly how many fat quarters I cut a few weeks ago, but it was A LOT. Plus I threw in a couple of fat quarter-ish pieces from my solids' stash, which made for a plethora of three, six, and eight-inch squares, when excising the seam allowances. Yesterday I finished the rainbow quilt, taking some nice shots of it on our laundry line that really only gets used for photo ops. The sun has been shining lately, perfect weather for displaying quilts, two others you can see on my Instagram account. The bright weather also lends itself to vibrantly hued quilts, and I'm thinking as soon as I make the back for the one above I'll design another with the spare squares. One more baby quilt remains on my current list of quilting To Do's, but we'll see how long the rainbow squares will hold out; I'm also in mood to use up various cut fabrics that are cluttering what little surface area exists in my office/sewing room. I'm in a mood to use up stuff, not sure why, other than maybe it's truly spring and the best way to clean is to make more quilts.

Oddly enough I have not felt rushed to write more than a daily morning output. I am managing a chapter per sitting, which is GREAT, but it's currently 9.40 a.m. and I'm done writing for the day, other than this entry. Previously when I neared the end of a novel, I kind of went whole hog, spending much of the last days typing furiously. But this book, and the impending series, seems to need a little more contemplation. Perhaps I'm still mourning the character I threw under the bus a couple of days ago, or I'm reeling from their family's reaction to said death. Or I'm just in no hurry to wrap up this story knowing there's plenty more to follow. Whatever the reason for my slight reticence, I'm grateful for the gentle pacing. There's a quilt back to make, weeds to pull, another quilt to design, laundry to do.... I live for more than writing, though at times I have to wonder, especially right now when my thoughts tend to wander to how this character will react, what will that plot line accomplish, might this twist end spectacularly or flop as an epic fail....

Fortunately I don't have such deep musings about the sewing. I sent the above picture to my daughters, seeking their counsel about whether or not I should add a white border. They agreed that no, it did not require any kind of border, the elder daughter suggesting I should make a rainbow binding for it, LOL! Not sure if I'll be that bold, but I am very pleased for how pretty it is, a bit loud, definitely spring-like. Last spring was hard for my family, our beloved grappling with the early stages of a cancer diagnosis. This spring has felt like EONS in arriving, but here is it, and my fabric reaction is ROYGBIV! It's also full of flowers, lots of flowers, lots of squares too. Lots of colour and brightness and vivacity announcing how winter is over, time to celebrate new life and warmer weather and that one day the grass won't be squishy. It's also obviously a season for me to wrap my head around a new series that starts off pretty grim. But joy emerges, or it will eventually, along with adventure and some action and love of course. And aliens, ahem. And quilts, though not in the abundance which surround me in real life. I feel a strange need to make quilts as though confirming spring is truly here, life teeming with all that goes along with said season. Maybe this is how I reckon such awful real-life loss, writing it fictionally, then sewing it up in all the colours of the rainbow.

However it goes, here I continue on a journey of healing, exploration, and comprehending grace. And being at peace in all the craziness. Peace in colous, in prose, and in knowing love is the warmest, softest, comfiest quilt in the galaxy. May you find that peace today too.

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