Hot Cast is a quilt about love and transformation. It is a quilt about taking the steps to end cycles and move beyond the pain and discomfort of the past. While creating this quilt in the winter and spring of 2011, I blogged weekly or monthly about the progress. Click the links below to read each entry in order:
|
Part 6 - Thoughts on Self Love Part 7 - Painting a Quilted Quilt |
Note: the numbers for the posts don't really work thanks to the post on "Getting back to Hot Cast" but they all show photos of the quilt during construction and will best explain what I was going through and thinking at the time this quilt was designed and quilted.
To be perfectly honest, and only after viewing most of the year of 2011 in hindsight, I can see that this whole year was spent mostly frustrated by my quilting style. I've continually tried to find faster, easier ways of constructing my goddess quilts, only to find that there is NO WAY to make something this detailed, this precised, or this focused on perfection and it not take forever.
I definitely knew that I had a problem after finishing this quilt and feeling disappointed by the front. There was just so much white fabric, and while white can certainly be beautiful, it's is just not my style. I prefer darker, more saturated colors, but I wasn't willing to paint the entire background of the quilt.
The back of the quilt, however, is one of my favorites. This is what happens when you use the same colored thread in the top and bobbin of your machine and use a darker solid backing for your quilt:
This is the side I usually display in my home.
I learned after finishing this quilt that feeling dissatisfied with a quilt is the best indication that there is something wrong. Something is wrong with your style, something is wrong with your construction method, something is wrong with something you are doing.
Essentially - feeling dissatisfied should always be a signal to CHANGE.
Transformation is not always easy. The hardest part for me as been worrying about what other people will think: What if I stop quilting so densely? What will they think if my fillers are bigger? What will people think if my quilts look different? What will they think if I make a bed quilt instead of a wall hanging?
Eventually you have to realize that the most important thing is to make what makes you happy. Nothing else really matters.
On the tag on the back of Hot Cast, applied after these photos were taken, I've written the following message. Hopefully I won't forget it:
It is the ultimate act of self love to give yourself the freedom to make whatever makes you happy. I quilt for ME.
