I realize that it is well into September
and the quilt I am blogging about was for August’s theme.
But I wanted to wait until today,
September 11th
to post about this theme and quilt.
I am sure you have heard so many
“I remember exactly where I was when I heard”
stories.
But today I wanted to talk about something just a little bit different:
how I felt.
I heard the words “World Trade Center” and “Pentagon”
and honestly, being the naive 5th grader that I was,
had no idea what those words even meant.
But being mixed with words like
“war” and “terrorists” and “death”
I remember feeling so scared.
For the first time in my life,
I felt unsafe.
The last 5 years were spent learning songs like
50 Nifty United States and
America the Beautiful.
I thought it was safe to assume that everyone loved America…
At least, all the people I had ever met.
Thinking back on that day 12 years ago,
I am reminded not only of all the tragedy and hate in this world
but of all the dreams that can be dashed out of sight in one moments notice.
The lives of those who have fallen both abroad and here at home
were filled with goals, wishes, aspirations
and dreams.
As we all know, there is no way to change the past.
But
there is a way to learn from it.
Let us be a little kinder to one another.
Let us be a little more tolerant with human differences.
Let us be quick to forgive and slow to judge.
Quick to love and slow to be angry.
We all have our own set of dreams to lose sleep over.
So don’t waste another minute,
don’t stall even a little.
Say “now” instead of “tomorrow”.
Lose sleep to your dreams.
__________________________________________
I really loved this quilt design.
I feel like it just spoke for itself. I didn’t have to do much with it because it was already so colorful and rich looking.
Here is what I did…
I chose a green backing, I thought it would match the flowers nicely.
And I have decided that I really love spray baste.
I find it sooooo much easier than pinning or safety pinning.
Also, I used 2 layers of 80/20 batting.
I think I have also decided that I love that batting combo. It gives the right amount of puff
as well as the right amount of stiffness.
Yep.
Next thing I did was outlined each of the flowers using the appropriate thread color.
Just something nice that would fit right in and enhance the print of the fabric.
When I did this, I just went ahead and quilting right over the words.
Next, I outlined all the leafage around the flowers.
First with a light green thread,
And then I went back through the leafage with a forest green,
to add a little more texture.
Again, I just went right over the words.
Luckily, the fabric’s color was so rich,
it really didn’t need a lot of thread mixed in.
After that I filled in the backgrounds with my staple swirl design
in a beige thread that would blend quite nicely.
Looks pretty cool from the back.
Thanks, batting combo.
As always,
cut off the edges and make sure it is square.
And then enjoy some hand binding while you watch pretty little liars.
(…or Breaking Bad, either are acceptable in my book.)
I chose to not quilt the circles or the words specifically because
I wanted to get the dream effect.
Everything is clear when you focus on each element.
Some parts are a little foggier than others, but when you step back
and look at the picture as a whole
everything just seems to come right together.
Lose sleep to your dreams.
Be great to each other.
-Karlee
