Helen Kelley Patchworks

January 16, 2005 – Step 4. I lay out my collection of fabric and pictures and sort out my head. I get out a big sheet of table cloth paper, full size and I begin to sketch. I draw.  I smooth and sharpen my lines.  I begin to clip out patchwork pieces and make applique shapes.  Some seem right.  Some go straight into the trash.  Experiment, experiment.  Hate it, love it, hate it, love it.

January 19, 2005 – Step 5. I begin to assemble.  I tweak and add. I lay it out on the floor and squint at it.  I move my pieces around. I patch and worry my way through crisis and recovery. 

January 23, 2005 – Step 6 – When to call it done?  At this point, the quilt is usually radically different from what I had sketched.  Same elements, same fabrics, but the design shifts and moves.  I have learned not to be distressed that it is different.  Usually it is better than I  first planned.  The quilt tells me when it is right, when it’s done.

Today my Post Card quilts came back from the show in Washington State. They were pristinely folded and wrapped in tissue. As I took out each one and laid it flat and smooth on the bed downstairs, I was surprised to see how good they were. I can remember every loose stitch, fray, and thready mismatched point. But now, suddenly, I am proud of them. Time and distance are great healers.

January 26, 2005 – Step 7 – Reconciliation. Once I have quilted and bound off my quilt, we (the quilt and I) often aren’t close friends for a while. Maybe it’s because we have been so close, so intense. I know every flaw, every change, every ache and stress. Like raising a child, it takes me a while to reconcile the new reality to the original vision. And then, another month, another year, I look at that quilt and I am surprised to discover that it has a spark of my heart in it.