2/05/2009

Squaring Up











I love working with fabric. Playjng with colors and textures. The log cabin is my favorite format because I can just relax and enjoy the piece as I make it. I don't have to worry about a complicated pattern or construction.




The centers of these log cabin squares are applique and batik pieces I bought in Kenya when I went to the 1985 UN Conference on Women. I prize this piece as a very special momento of an incredible adventure-trip. 10,000 Miles to Home, is the story I tell about those three weeks in which I saw a new world, had a deeply moving spiritual experience on safari, saved a friend's life and made it home safely - - a much wiser woman. I sewed my memories, my feelings, good and bad, all the experiences - the laughter, fears and tears of those 21 days into that fabric collage. I just touch the piece and it all comes flooding back. That trip deserves my remembering it.

When I am sewing I walk a high-wire of unplanned compositions - thats sort of like saying one false move and you fall. But when I work like that I feel quiet and quite calm. Maybe that's why I yearn to sew right now.

I am not calm at the moment. We had some upsetting news yesterday. Jim had an "off" report from the doctor and has to have surgery - sooner rather than later.

We will be going back to George Washington Hospital Center in a few weeks. We were there last March for another surgery adventure for Jim. I am not looking forward to this return.

Maybe I could take my Bernina sewing machine and a basket of scraps with me? I doubt it. I have never considered lap-quilting - maybe now is the time.

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