Express Your Love Goddess Quilt - Original Design
Finished Size: 30 x 42 inches
 |
Would you love to read the inspirational quilting stories behind all of Leah's goddess quilts? In 2019 Leah published her artist memoir showcasing the creation of each quilt in the goddess series. This is a story of transformation and how each goddess quilt pushed Leah to become a better woman, wife, mother, and quilter. This is the book quilters have been asking about for years! |
In 2012 we hosted the first Free Motion Quilt Along and I enjoyed a wonderful year guiding quilters through several fun projects and many beautiful designs. By the end of the year I knew I wanted to continue quilting along, but with a new project that would be even more meaningful.
This is how Express Your Love was born. I began sketching the design that fall and had the final version ready by the new year. We began 2013 quilting the Express Your Love goddess quilt together.
Looking for this quilt design? You can find Express Your Love as a printed fabric panel right here on Spoonflower.
The quilt pattern for Express Your Love is under construction. This page will be updated when a new pattern is available.
The unfortunate downside is this quilt along ended up being a disorganized chaotic mess. I'd start a new version of this quilt one week only to start a totally different quilt the next week.
At the time I was also quilting Duchess Reigns and I can remember feeling terribly split between the two projects. I wanted to quilt them both, but simply didn't have time.The wonderful thing about sharing this quilt was the ability to share and talk about things that are easy to keep silent about. I stitched words into this quilt to help me be a better person, both to myself and my family. I also challenged myself to try new techniques and teach them during the quilt along.
What resulted was a very challenging year, both emotionally and financially. I seemed to be working all the time, but getting nothing done and our business suffered greatly for it. I can remember feeling very tired and very frustrated, but I can also remember feeling stimulated and challenged as I tried new construction methods I'd never used with any other goddess quilt.
In the end, I just couldn't bring it together and left many versions of Express Your Love unfinished, folded in a drawer in my basement. Many quilters wrote in to ask for more videos, but I was ready to move on, in a completely different direction and with a rock solid focus and organization. We started the Building Blocks Quilt Along in 2014 and I pretty much shut the door on this project, the quilt along, and all the various unfinished quilts.
Recently I pulled out this embroidered version of Express Your Love and began working on it while James and I watch a TV show in the evening. Just that little bit of time was enough to start seeing progress.
Pretty soon I was staying up later to get a bit more stitching in and that progress expanded. Now I can look at this embroidery and see it's very close to being finished.
Along with stitching this design in embroidery floss and beads, I've been thinking about this project, this quilt, and how the quilt along went so wrong. It was entirely my fault of course - you can't be the host of a party and then fail to plan the event!
These days I look back on that time and feel grateful for what I've learned: how to organize and plan, how to budget my time and work efficiently, how to indulge in my own projects and experiments without the pressure of turning it into something bigger than it needs to be.
 |
If you died tomorrow, what would you most regret not doing? Do you have a dream achievement, a special project you long to focus on? Have you been putting off this dream for years? This beautiful 3-month daily planner includes undated blank calendars so you can fill in the spaces to fit any month of the year. |
I plan to work through all the various versions of Express Your Love (and there are several!) and finish them all slowly, exactly like I'm finishing this tiny hand embroidered version. One stitch at a time with love in my heart.
Here's a beautiful version of Express Your Love created by Kay. She shares:
"I used your goddess design several years ago to make a quilt to hang in my daughter-in-law‘s hair salon. Just thought I would share it with you."
I'm working on reorganizing the Express Your Love quilt along, but for now you can watch all the videos in their original crazy order in this playlist:
Also check out the original blog posts for this quilt along project. Click the links below to read more about each version of the Express Your Love Quilt:
Yep, this was a hot mess, but I learned a lot and I'm a much better quilting teacher for it!
