12" x 13"

I have faith in simple things — the turning of the seasons, the growth that follows dormancy, that I will be fed.  The self talk that went:  ‘I have no faith and therefore I cannot finish a quilt on the topic’ was refreshingly updated and reframed as I worked on this piece.

fabric/paper collage photo-transferred onto fabric, collaged again

Here is the doorway image that evokes passage & transformation, for me.  The lettuces tempted me to make a stupid visual pun about “lettuce pray”, but that did not quite materialize.  Instead, the lettuce leaves represent fresh bounty that is simple and wholesome and nourishing.

There were other issues with finishing this little quilt.  As a puruser of all kinds of craft magazines and blogs, I am disdainful of certain words that have been used to death.  For a long time, I couldn’t bring myself to join the legions of crafters who insert one of THOSE words (e.g., BELIEVE, DREAM, INSPIRE) (the cynic asks, ‘how about VOMIT, DOUBT, CRUSHED HOPE’?!!).  But, here is mine.

Also, after transferring a fabric/paper collage back onto fabric, quilting it, embellishing it with onion nets and fabric chips, I ‘ruined’ it with sharpie.  One of the challenges was how to cover up enough of the sharpie without losing all the previous detailing.

This figure sowing seedlings, cut from a weird, upcycled (and giant) blouse, is an answer of sorts to the Journal Quilt I made where the harvesting figure on some decorator toile turned into the Grim Reaper.  It took me a long time to ‘correct’ the way the bar of white from the blouse upset the design of the quilt… a little aqua sheer (also an upcycled item from a thrift store) helped.  You can just see some of the yellow onion netting peeking out from under.

Also resonating with an earlier quilt (in this case, the Journal Quilt “Worm Moon”), the lower edge depicts swirls and fertile-looking circles, all busily preparing the soil for the growth that is to come.  In this case, the frayed silk edges, the raw-edged applique, and rough zig-zag stitching go a long way to reference a ‘messy’, seemingly chaotic, but productive environment (SOIL!).