Life without a heart quilt

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Not the heart quilt but what I worked on last night for my medallion quilt also known as Alexandria. Pics of heart quilt coming soon!

Kind of like life without grandkids around, or being on the other side of the solstice.

It's an emptiness or loss that you knew couldn't be avoided. Eventually one quilt top is completed, and even if you make the pattern again, different fabrics proffer an altered vibe. And IF the same fabrics in exactly the same placement were used, the manner of application cannot be duplicated. Life isn't static. Everything changes.

Yesterday after lunch our daughter and her crew departed for their home. Items were left behind, nothing essential, merely a way to remind us that a return trip is desired, or how I interpret it, lol. I threw some things in the wash, collected scattered toys and scraps of paper from art projects off the floor. I still need to toss their milk, as we drink lactose free and have no use for regular two percent. Last night as I sat to sew, having brought all my hoo haa back to the coffee table, I suddenly felt an odd melancholy, first for the strange stillness, then for what I was stitching. I retrieved stuff for Alexandria; diamonds required basting, then to be sewn into pairs, then added to a hexagon block. Yet despite being English paper piecing, this wasn't at all similar to my heart quilt, which I still need to photograph. That heart quilt truly made inroads that now make me ponder its existence within my little old life.

Our lives are....what we make of them. They can be loud or unobtrusive, meaningful or lacking in focus. And they can be all these things swirled together! And/or might be better, for as I said, we change, grow, regress, grow again, change again, regress again (SIGH), and on and on we meander along paths which can't be predicted no matter HOW MUCH we think we've prepared and/or anticipated. I assumed the weather this weekend was going to be steeped in early morning clouds, but I was wrong! Yesterday and today we've had sunny starts, a total thrill as I've gotten to admire the amazing solstice sunrise, WOO HOO! Our grandsons jumped on the trampoline much of yesterday morning while the sun shone so brightly, so kindly, and so oddly might I add. Summers along the North Coast aren't known for being the brightest times of the year even if the sun is at its highest peaks in the sky. Yet we were wholly blessed by lovely weather, great adventures, and togetherness that came like a gift, then departed like the breaking mist, leaving us as faraway grandparents grateful for the moments shared with beloveds, then lamenting the eventual distance.

Kind of how I feel when days become less summery as the sun heads south along the horizon. And how I felt last night sewing on a different quilt, although the heart quilt is merely yards away, resting on the work table in my office.

And, might I add, it's not leaving anytime soon because 1) I need to turn it into a FINISHED quilt and 2) It's for a dear friend when she retires, and that is a future activity as yet undetermined.

So that awesome collection of hearts will be hanging around, and when the time comes, I'll be faffing with it as I construct its other side, which I am currently planning to be a Kawandi-style design. That in itself will be SLOW STITCHING, so indeed that heart quilt top shall grace our home for a good while. But the exact method of handling all those heart blocks is OVER. DONE. FINITO. COMPLETED. And that very process will never happen again.

What I was, um, grappling with about thirteen hours ago, ahem.

Yet to analyze that wasn't for last night. I was tired. I wanted to sew, not having done any for a couple of days what with beloveds visiting. And I needed to ponder/process this unique sensation, which I can't say I've overtly experienced other than when I finished making the blocks for my Cornflower quilt. I truly ADORED that design, can admire the finished quilt from where I now sit on the sofa, typing this on a laptop in the living room. I didn't feel like going into the office to write this post, mostly because I'm still doing laundry and I can hear the washer and dryer's chimes better downstairs, and not have to trudge up and down stairs, LOLOL. And sometimes I like to change up my day, like keeping lots of EPP projects on hand to switch between them. But now the heart quilt is out of the rotation. The sun is starting its very slow at the moment trek southward, losing a few seconds of discernible light each day. By August that acceleration will increase, though for now the long days remain, even if the grandkids have gone home and the heart quilt lives in the office.

And for that awesome array of light, I am indeed VERY THANKFUL! One or two changes at a time please.

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