Stitch by stitch

The second horizontal strip quilt.

Quilts have become symbolic of certain periods of time in my life. My first quilting project was undertaken long before anyone ever knew I was pregnant. My thought was this: I am having a baby, why not make a quilt. When most people find out they are expecting they start calling their loved ones, I took a different approach and headed to the fabric store. I enlisted the help of my friend and together we toiled on a quilt with an unknown recipient. How exciting it was to tell her one day the recipient was someone growing inside of me. She had her suspicions, but had never been brave enough to ask.

Flash forward five months and I had already purchased fabric to make another quilt because I worried the first would be a little too feminine for my little guy. After Asher passed away the first project I wanted to undertake was commencing my second quilt. Days after he had pass away I remembering emailing my friend to tell her I wanted to start on the second quilt. I asked her if my response was weird and being the devoted friend she was she responded with a resounding 'no, not at all'. Less than one week after he passed away that same friend and I started to piece together the second quilt, much like I was piecing back together my life. Just recently the second quilt has been completed and while the first quilt was made for the hope and excitement of my new life, the second quilt was made for healing.

The first chevron quilt.

Moving onward

During an open and honest conversation with a good friend, I asked her if she found it odd I am working on my second baby quilt right now. She wisely responded "there is no right or wrong way to grieve, you will find your own path". I have found a lot of freedom and comfort in that phrase. As a relative novice to grief, it is easy to assume as time distances you from your grief you should feel a certain way or do particular things, but I love the personal nature this phrase gives to grief. After further reflection this sentiment could be applied to an array of situations...."there is no right or wrong way to be happy or to feel fulfilled, you will find your own path".
In the midst of a different conversation a profound question was asked to me. "are you being kind to yourself?" What a great question to pause and cause some soul stirring reflection. This particular question really made me ponder my treatment of myself as opposed to the usual auto response to the vague. "how are you doing?"
Today, I appreciate friends who ask the soul stirring questions and friends who give me precious jewels of wisdom to percolate through my mind.

Labor of love

I just recently finished my first quilt and I am very happy with the results. I knew how I hoped it would turn out, but it turned out even better than I had imagined. Between not using a pattern and this being my first time making a quilt, it was quite an adventure to make. I would have never been able to make this without the help of my very patient friend. Quilting reminds me a lot of scrapbooking; selecting all the different patterns and colors and finding a way to tie them all together.

Work in Progress

Long before I told anyone I was pregnant I started making a baby quilt. I have been to enough baby showers and seen enough nurseries to know what color palette I wanted regardless of our baby's gender. I am an organized person by nature, so perpetual progress toward my end goal was necessary to make the weeks click by. Each quilt shop I visited in search of fabric, I quietly revealed my secret to strangers. It was a special time and while we enjoyed keeping our secret amongst ourselves I quickly started falling in love with the process of quilt making. I am now to the hand stitching part of my quilt and since I am only 24 weeks pregnant I am confident I will have finished this long before Fall comes, let alone our winter baby.