I So Often Need A Push

Eve's Lavender Seas (click on pic for larger view)

I think of myself as being self-driven but in truth I too much of the time need that outside influence and a deadline to get me into action. So with the looming deadline of the visit that would include the little girl that I owed a quilt to, I've been head down for the last 3 weeks or so. Once I determined that I could indeed quilt without flaring up my previously inflamed nerve, I returned to a tried and true formula: sitting down to quilt each day before lunch, and trusting that just a little quilting each day would get me to my goal, no need for marathon sessions. I soon knew how far I could get in an hour, and was relieved to finish the quilting on Monday, get it bound on Tuesday, and present Eve's Lavender Seas to the little one on Wednesday.

Goddaughter Sarah & Molly of the Undersea Playground quilt

I used the same formula to tackle long neglected housework and straightening up that suddenly matters when you know company is coming - a little bit each day. And then as time was running out, I did the sane thing and let go of some of it. There's clean, neat and tidy, and then there's excessively clean, spotless and House Beautiful perfect. While not blood relatives, this family coming to visit IS like family, and hardly looking for lapses in my living space. My biggest concern as the clock ticked down was doing a bit of child-proofing, making sure my treasured pieces scattered around on furniture were out of reach, and anything truly dangerous too. It all worked out fine and I was more relaxed about the little ones in my midst than I ever thought possible.

Eve with her step-brother Jonah

I have so little experience with small children, but remembering how well received older sister Molly's quilt was, I stuck to a similar theme (and some of the same fabrics), quilting in bubbles and fish and coral. I forgot that little kids get fixated on certain things as they grow and explore their surroundings. Eve's current fixation is with flowers (she was eager to show mine some love with careful watering - see pic above), so totally ignored my carefully quilted fish and pointed straight at what she thought was a flower (actually an anemone I think). Well, I wasn't about to argue with her as she repeated "flower, flower!"

I used several different colors of threads on this quilt, with more ease in choosing than I normally exhibit. I kept thinking, use it up, use lots of thread up, and realized this came from some restless nights thinking about how I'd stockpiled so much fabric and thread and wasn't sure I'd be able to get back to quilting again. Still, I have way too much thread in my stash so yes, use it up!

I was glad I followed the advice of my art group to quilt top to bottom right over those blocks turned sideways, rather than my usual adhering to stitching in the ditch and running the designs in line with the block's piecing. You can see a bit of how I maneuvered a curving design around the ends of the strips in those sideways blocks.

Here are my poor ignored fishies. I was following directions from a magazine article which did nothing to add eyes. I thought the fish looked too bland without something else, so I inked in eyes on most of them.

I used a piece of my late friend's beautiful hand-dyed cotton for the backing. With the exception of the orange and a multi-color thread used on both front and back, the bobbin thread is a dark purple which blends well with it. Click for a larger view to see some of the quilting.

Here's a closer shot.

I really should have made a separate label, but I'd already spent two session on the last day to get the binding done and I was out of time and steam. It was difficult to find a place on the backing to ink in the label info, but I finally found a spot. But no pen was showing up very well. I double checked the info on my white Sakaru Gel Pen and decided it might just work like a pigma pen - permanent and archival. Inked over the black lettering, my label info finally showed up. Fingers crossed it will survive through some washings.

 

I admit that all this pushing and the time spent with little girls in perpetual motion took its toll, and I am still recovering a bit. It was all so worth it, especially pushing myself past my fear about working at the sewing machine. Now I know I can get back to textile work. But in truth, I find I'm itching to get back to my sketching. I signed up for another Sketchbook Skool class a month ago, this one specifically on colored pencils, and I've not had time to do more than look at a few videos from the first week. It got me excited and now I have time to watch those videos and do the homework.