A friend asked me today whether I have a plan in mind when I work on a quilt and then go step by step. This is so interesting!!! Because I often have plans and then I end up using them only as a frame and I watch myself adding new elements ... There is no way I can follow an original plan piece by piece if I don't feel like it. Even if I wanted to, I just can't.
However, after thinking about it, there are usually some steps I go, but they are not always arranged in a straight line, more in a spiral:
* I get an idea from somewhere and keep it in mind.
* I am confident that it can be done.
* I work with what I have. So it is important that I have a large collection of materials. Most of the things in my collection of books and fabrics and yarn are gifts or purchases made on a sudden impulse.
Also: I need to have sources of inspiration: persons, books, internet, nice shops, cafés, flea markets, unknown situations... This is one of the reasons I like to travel.
Also: I know that things (big or small) will come to me just the way I need them to come. I learned to trust here, and I try to be attentive to things . Or situations. I try to learn to trust my feelings so that I know what is right here or wrong.
What I don't do: I don't go hunting for things and I don't fight for (or against) things. I try to accept what I have or don't have and am looking forward to my next idea! (That does not mean that I don't plead my case in a controversy. I do.)
* I have a vague plan how to go forward.
* I start somewhere.
* I work properly, I try to avoid haste (although I'm very impatient).
* I really have FUN! (or something is wrong)
* I listen to impulses, intuition, new ideas, and I adjust my original plan very often.
* I sometimes let things rest and let some time go by before I go on. Meanwhile I work on something else.
* I accept irregularities, I welcome them as lovely specialties, as part of human work. I try not to lose energy with seeking for perfection.
* I don't give up. Not ever. Somehow I complete everything, even if it takes time, time, time.
The whole process is much more interesting when you work in a team with someone!!!! So here are pictures of a quilt I worked on together with my sister, it was a gift for my other sister who turned 60. We sisters have very different philosophies of life and different ways to achieve a set goal.... but somehow we worked hand in hand, according to our personal talents, and in the end everyone and everything has found the right place. I enjoyed this process very much:
Finding fabrics (after taking these, then these, sorting out these, thinking about which fabrics have a special connection to our sister, which will remind her of something nice?):
Choosing a pattern, making the first squares (after finding this better than that, no, this is the best, no this is too difficult, ok, let's take that, no, I can't do that, ok, does that look right?....):
Arranging the squares (after putting this square next to that, and no, that doesn't look good here, but yes, these here go well together, and this must lie in a corner, and this must balance out the effect of that...):
Sewing the squares together (how come we used a template but the corners don't fit here? well, in the end they do, somehow):
Putting together the three layers of the quilt and threading them provisionally (the moment where you FEEL for the first time how the finished quilt may really feel and look like):
Quilting the three layers (top, batting, the back), we used a template and a fabric marker for drawing the lines we wanted to quilt:
Adding a border (and here is also my pincushion, a horse which would not stand, but it sits in a lovely way):
Adding a label (who had done it, why and when?):
Finished! And a cushion, too! :-)
