Easy but intricate

 

Fashioning a mitered corner for the Sunflower Quilt.

I'm almost finished with the Sunflower Quilt, pleased to also be nearly done with one for my husband, in the I can make the binding, attach it, then add to the hand-quilting, then take out the safety pins way. The latter project is still far from landing in the washer, then spread out on my other half's half of the bed, but it's been much longer under construction, and I can't wait to have all my regular safety pins to use!

Not that I have a quilt top in need of basting, merely the sense of not being in the hole when it comes to quilts, ahem. Yet that's not exactly what today's entry concerns, although simple quilt tops lend themselves to piling up, why I'm in this spot in the first place. However, let me return to easy but intricate before this post loses focus.

Hand-quilting once the binding is wholly attached.

Um.... Hmmmm.... I started this draft last night while sitting under the Sunflower Quilt, slumber tickling my toes. I spent a fair amount of time yesterday hand-quilting both of the fabric WIPs, four rows left for Sunflower, which I will get to later today, then throw that comforter in the wash, then.... Onto the laundry line for photographs, but maybe this post will detail its construction, or rather its conclusion. Good grief; sometimes writing a blog entry is easy but intricate.

What I found intricate last night were the fabrics, chosen from a stack that had been piling up, nothing overtly planned other than the colours are bright, a mix of my beloved florals and modern prints, a few aged cottons too. How the machine and hand-quilting seems to mesh well, and how glad I am to be able to hand-stitch, fingers feeling nimble. I was tired, being the end of the day, but not weary from sewing, yet simply unable to muster the necessary mental bandwidth to stitch those last four rows. I wanted to, but it wasn't happening.

The back; I used a beloved Anna Maria fabric, the name of which escapes me. Better for it to be employed in largess here than chopped into bits, lol.

Instead I started this post, merely in giving it a title. That sometimes sewing isn't hard at all, yet it's complex, or the notions associated with it are far weightier than what a patchwork quilt conveys. Or maybe it was the love story I was pondering while stitching, hehehe. A widower takes a co-worker on a date, but it doesn't work out as she isn't interested. Then another co-worker approaches the man, they hit it off and.... I came to the end of what probably won't go any further than my head at the same time as I finished stitching a row. Then I admired my handiwork, pondering what sits underneath a quilt, a plot idea, my life. I write, I sew, I blog about those things. Yet much remains unstated.

Unstated is how happy I am mixing up the futzy (for me) English paper piecing with patchwork squares. How I will probably never run out of story ideas, leaving in the recesses of my gray matter fictional existences that for a couple of hours on any given night proffer enough entertainment that I nearly completed the hand-quilting. That I still lament not getting into the garden more this year, but maybe next year will be different (not to mention that I MUST MUST MUST weed the iris bed once enough rain has fallen to soften the ground). That in avoiding gluten now for well over a week my joints don't ache, and I haven't fallen into a heap not eating bread or pizza. I throw that in merely to note that my hands aren't affected by gluten, but OMG much of my right leg hates it.

More Anna Maria on the right, that upside down moth/butterfly in lawn a delight. Stitch, stitch, stitch....

Perhaps life is easy, but intricate. Simple, yet complex. Straightforward although bordered by landmines that if we veer from the lit path will scatter our peace of mind to the effing winds. Not to downplay the awful hurdles that do appear; the journey is at times beset by catastrophes of varying degrees. But at the heart of my existence is the sense that all is well, even in a maelstrom. As long as I continue to breathe deeply, taking one step at a time, even the worst hurricane won't slam me to the pavement. Yes I'll wobble, even fall to my knees, but in the awareness that a crouched position is the best way to withstand the gale. Getting back to my feet will happen, even if I eat gluten. It won't be easy, but it will occur.

Okay, that feels like enough of a post for this Sunday morning. Easy but intricate. Now, back to my regularly scheduled crafting.