Getting back to work

When I returned home from Berlin on Monday early afternoon, I first picked up my son from school, unpacked the car and then waited for my soul to catch up with me after the 600 km drive. That included loading the washing machine, checking the contents of the refrigerator, and taking my son to track and field practice. And going to bed early.

But on Tuesday I immediately focussed and set to work on quilting my entry for this year’s challenge from the Carrefour in Ste. Marie-aux-Mines. 

"Red Line" in the first stages of being quilted

Similar as with last year’s topic, I had not immediately been blessed with a flood of ideas for “deformation”. I procrastinated, thought about the deformation of the words ‘freedom’ and ‘solidarity’, and how that could possible be turned into a quilt. Solidarity could have used the logo of the Polish union Solidarnosc, which then could have been deformed via photoshop.  

Similarly with ‘freedom’ (in German). 

But I am not an expert at photoshop, neither of the attempts satisfied me, and at some point I had decided I wasn’t going to enter. Then sometime in May I received a reminder from the organizers reminding me of that wonderful new prized given for teachers by the Japanese sponsors for the first time this year – I am teaching in Ste. Marie-aux-Mines this year, and they had not yet received my entry... Extended deadline: June 27. Call that pressure? Time running out, too, with only a few weeks left.

But a couple of days before we left for our vacation, I did have an idea that I found interesting enough to follow, that would be relatively easy and straightforward to realize, and on our way to our holiday apartment my husband and I talked it through a little. It will be a quilt that fits into the series ‘Play of Lines’, though coming from a totally different source of inspiration than most of the other quilts in that series. Of course, during the holidays I could not actively work on it, not being prepared, and not having the studio space necessary.

So when I returned home from vacation due to constant rain, I could get most of the sewing done before I left for Berlin. Focussed work! Now I am working on the quilting.

Back of "Red Line"

Detail of "Red Line"

I have finished the machine quilting, and I do want to include hand-stitching as well. However, severe limitation in my supply of black threads suitable for hand-stitching is posing a difficulty. Too bad – it will have to work like this, because the deadline is June 27^th and I can’t spend time looking around for threads on the internet, waiting to have them shipped to me and only then start with the stitching. So, as the quilters in the old days, I am making do with what I have.

I don’t really like working under pressure like this. But somehow I get the impression that it is part of how my mind or my creativity works. No idea how to change it, and no time to think about that right now...