Ta-da! In the twenty minutes between dropping the boys and taking my morning bath before work yesterday, I finished the last few seams on the Treasure Island Quilt (the commission for Jungian therapist, Wendy Golden-Levitt, blogged about here). It is pinned to another quilt (that is also almost done) on a dining room wall.

My early design process is sprawling, messy, and welcomes detours and flaws. The qualities of randomness and chaos are signatures, almost. But then, in the final run toward completion, the teeniest of details bug me?   Hmmmmm.

Here in this picture, I would have loved for the tiny black and white spiral in the white, pirate fabric to have remained whole, in order to pick up the larger spirals of the black/ochre spirals above it. And alas, a good portion of its turning was eaten by a seam.

Note to self — (since many of the niggling problematic details have to do with losing portions of print) — cut fabric rectangles BIGGER and get better at tucking under edges as I go (it’s all about what I SEE, you see, so seam allowances can get distracting).

Dare to self — try gesso on canvas!!!  You’ve been threatening to do this for years now.  So do it!

• Yes, it would be a finish more consonant with the process leading up to it.
• But here’s the thing — learning what happens to fabric and glue and gesso and shininess and lumps and the fact that placement would be more stuck/permanent (I move fabric around until the very final seams in my current mode) would mean being back on a learning curve.

And speaking of canvas and gesso, I have been inspired by the work of Sabrina Ward Harrison.