Looking Back?

Possibly. The quilts just arrived home from Lyon; there had been some confusion over postcodes, so they took their time about it. Milliecat has slept on them, so they must be the right quilts...she's a great believer, like most of her species, in welcoming anything cloth into the house by lying on it, but only sleeps on my quilts. Looking at them spread out on the dining room table, I was reminded that I had meant to tell you the story of 'Swoop'.

I had promised Lyon ten quilts, and had prepared about a dozen for quilting. However, having made nine of the ten, the last one had to be a particular size, and Swoop (which at this point was known as 'that yellow thing') was the only one of that size remaining. I looked at it again, and felt distinctly uninspired. So I did what anyone would have done; I procrastinated. I put it up on the design wall and waited. Sat with it. Let it talk. Let it talk some more.

Finally, it told me that though I could see a distinct 'e' shape at the bottom of the quilt, that e shape was not the point. Add some more marks, it said. So I did, those feathery shapes you see falling through the quilt. When I did that, it said 'Swoop'. So that was its name, and was added to the top left of the quilt, just in case anyone was in any doubt (like me, for instance). The quilting was left minimal, just enough to support the movement through the quilt. And to show the 'person like' figure to the bottom left, and the 'eye' at the top right...all of which feature in most of my work...well, ok, much of my work. And that was it. It hung reasonably well in Lyon, I thought. More importantly, I feel happy with it. Sometimes you have to hang on...and on...and on...until something says what it really is. In this case, though, I didn't have the luxury of time; there was a deadline, and it was close. Those elements combined produced the finished quilt. Sometimes, I think, we give ourselves too much time to think. It can be a good idea to short circuit that process, whether or not we have a deadline, just to focus the mind. It certainly worked for me...