Consolation quilt musings amid literal and figurative mud

A trench my husband dug today as the run was a soggy mess from the rain. Owl or Cami Chicken is to the left. Photo courtesy of my better half.

Sometimes a theme attaches itself to a sewing project. Sometimes I go into a quilt with an agenda. And sometimes it's a mix of these notions. The medallion quilt, the first I have made by machine, is both. (Pictures of the progress in the next post, once I complete the current round....)

The gray/blue/neutral fabrics lend themselves to winter. Which is coming down with abundance right now all over California. In adding the pink, I wanted to break up, just a little, the gray/blue theme. But I didn't want to diminish the cool sense of.... Detachment? Sorrow? Understated comprehension of bleakness? Yes, I wanted to somehow honor those killed and suffering in Minnesota. Yet all over this planet heartache and injustice rages. But beauty and compassion and love also stand firm, welcoming all those seeking mercy and solace and affection. We cannot forget to exemplify the better angels of our natures against so much evil.

That's a lot for one quilt. After I finished sewing, I ate a snack, watching Camilla Chicken preening near the mailbox. These hens take up a lot of time and brain space, but they proffer distractions and an adorable manner of following whoever is carrying something that they believe is a treat. Owl dogs my heels as though she is a puppy, Camilla beside her, Barnevelders behind them, all of them chirping and clucking and sometimes sounding like Tribbles.

If you know much about Star Trek TOS, well, 'nuff said.

Yes, occasionally my chickens are big Tribbles on claws. They want to eat ALL THE TIME, unless they want to preen or dust bathe. We've had nearly three inches of rain since Monday, so their dustbox in the coop is all they have for that activity, but we had plenty of dry spells today and they were all over the place, digging and scratching and pecking the ground for whatever they find delectable. Meanwhile I wrote a chapter for the new book, in addition to adding two sides of the next medallion quilt round, pinning the third. Adding six-plus inches per side is ramping up the size of this quilt top, and there's still more to come. I have no idea what will happen to it, other than it will probably get folded carefully, then placed with a growing stack of finished tops for later perusal. I wanted to add green squares to the corners, but didn't feel like engaging in that level of difficulty.

A quilt of consolation should be easy, you know?

Sewing long swathes of fabric is fairly simple, and I'm keen to make another, as I have lots of fabric and it's going to keep raining for many days, perhaps the rest of the month. During the dry spells I'll tend to the hens, run errands, take a walk. Think about consolation during Lent, which begins tomorrow. Last year for Lent I read Letters and Papers From Prison by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, also Love Letters From Cell 92 by Bonhoeffer and Maria von Wedemeyer. The couple were newly engaged, secretly as well, when he was arrested, eventually spending much of the last years of World War II in Tegel Prison, in cell 92. All that led me to digging deeply into Scripture, which has sustained me during the past year. And now it's 2026, and Lent is again upon us, and I'm making what I think is a beautiful quilt top with colours I don't often use, the grays and blues hearkening possibly to darker times.

Or maybe they mean a new beginning, as we in the northern hemisphere eagerly await spring! These hues, so dear to my heart, ask for a bit more patience, as winter barks loudly like it's never going away. Yet spring is close, I can feel it when I look outside at the dark morning sky that no longer lingers as long as weeks ago. And how bright the evenings remain, even though it's cold out. I'm grateful we're having these storms in February and not in December; cold AND dark might be too much. Or I think they would be overwhelming. Yet I am held by Christ, who keeps all that frosty darkness at bay.

My Tribble chickens help too. Chirp, chirp, chirp and so on and sew forth....