Check out this blog post. The sewing together of a quilt always takes forever. I want to see it done. Finished.
I woke up early one morning and had a dream of the next quilt. It was so clear. A large mountain--all encompassing. A field going into the distance. Where the field and the mountain met, water. Was it a stream? A lake? Clearly something I wanted to approach. The mountain a deep vivid green going up to the sky. A sunny day. Warm. The colors bright and pure. A counterpart to the dusty colors of prairie hills.
Was this from the movie A River Runs Through It? Or maybe it was in the White Mountains where my DH and I vacation? Did it matter? No--I just needed to start the piece. A few blocks of the dark brown. The green fabric was needed to keep me focused.
But how to create the feeling of water. I could see it glistening in my mental picture. I pin up some strips of fabric.
Not quite right. The color too blue. Too obvious. I remember a hike this summer to a waterfall. At first you of glimpses of the stream. Occasionally if the wind was right, you might hear it. But basically you were hiking up to a promise.
How would this look? I keep piecing. The mountain must be BIG. Not the small mountains around here. I don't have as many greens as I would like--but I don't want to stop and buy more. I search the studio. Fold and refold fabric hunting for those tiny strips of green that will be just right.
The quilt grows. I wonder if there should be sky at the top of the mountain. Or will that be too much design. Too realistic.
I decide to add just a hint of blue--teal maybe. It is a cloudy day and I am too busy working to want to get the light right for the picture. This quilt is impelling me to just sew.
But I am not sure the water is quite right. Too much red. I would not hike to that. Hmm. How disappointing. What if my idea was wrong after all that work? Should I have thought this quilt through more. I go home disappointed. Then the next morning I wonder if I should just add more blue here.
I pin up a piece.
Yes. Alas another fuzzy image. But this is just what I want. I take out just a bit of the blocks. Add a couple more pieces of blue. I do want the lake to be just glimpsed. A secret lake.
Wow--it is amazing what a simple tweak can do. Yes, that promise. The right blue--warm, summer. Just what I wanted. What do you think? Would you hike to this lake? Have you ever had a project where a simple tweak or two can change everything?
Now I must work hard and sew it together. After all I am doing The Washington Craft Show in November. Yikes!!!
I have had that experience too, often going from "this is totally simplistic" to "wow -- that's it!" Sometimes the change even comes from covering over a mistake, and then, ah! Sometimes it comes from my lovely husband who points to something and says "what if...". The changes are slight, the results just right.
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