It represents my attempt to integrate my life between our family home in Orinda and our seaside home in Sea Ranch. Last October in a Challenge Workshop with Hollis Chatelain, I selected a first and second strike of swirling fabrics that Hollis had dyed. Our assignment was to spend half a day quilting one fabric with areas of calm and busier areas, and to spend the other half-day quilting the other using a theme and repetition. We were also to respect the “gesture” or mood of the fabric. From the spirals, I felt a swirly galaxy and a nautilus shell. We had no idea during the quilting that we’d have homework of combining them before the next year’s workshop into one quilt, with the added challenge of adding a border that would be integrated into the design.
The two pieces before integration (I really didn't like the second one's lumpiness):
There’s a longer story about what the swirly quilting and the nautilus-style quilting revealed about my inner journey and my spiritual insights about dualistic thinking -- you’ll be able to read about that later in Reap As You Sew: Personal Stories of Spirit at Work in Quiltmaking.
Technically and psychologically, it was hard to figure out how to cut up already quilted pieces and how to integrate them with a whole cloth hand-dyed border. I worked with full-size color photocopies as I built up the nerve to go forward. I ended up with a trapunto effect. Eventually, I allowed the gently curving quilted points and the quilted swirls to overlap, representing how my life in Orinda and Sea Ranch are not separate, and how my thoughts about my life are not so dualistic (anymore).
Our workshop reconvenes in a month. I'm really excited to see what everyone has done with this challenge!
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