All the little bits. All together and everywhere at the same time.
Ages ago I started sewing snippets together. Just two little bits of fabric sewn together randomly. An evening of pressing and I could sew pairs together. And sew more together. Then I put it all aside so a rainy day. Rather, for the motivation to do more.
Motivation hit me last week. It is all due to Amanda Jean and her decision to plan a Scrap Vortex quilt along. I also needed to come down from Market and sew for the sake of sewing. So one day she and I spent some time sewing and chatting. There was a lot of chain piecing and a lot of pressing involved to get what feels like millions of pieces sewn together.
At the beginning the bits come together quite slowly. It feels like you are sewing forever and getting nowhere. Then suddenly you have these big chunks of fabric that look like something. Crazy, wild somethings filled with tiny pieces of fabric! You also have crazy wild somethings all over your sewing table, design wall, and floor. You are covered in threads, more so than at any other time, but deliriously happy.
Then you are not. Because you are covered in threads and there are bits of fabric everywhere. Everywhere. And the fun chaos that you gave order too only seems like chaos. You can square it up, sew them together and have something that looks like a quilt top. Order out of chaos. But there are still load of snippets (are they multiplying at night?).
After a week of sewing I've got a large baby size quilt top together (44'' x 50''), plus loads of slab sections that could be added, and still half a basket of snippets. Not to mention that every single other time I sew more snippets are added. I love the process, I love where I've gotten to, but I need this to go away for a little while. Sometimes the chaos is just a bit too much.
I adore improv, it is my default quilt language. I will never get tired of scraps. Surprisingly though, this past week has been a roller coaster of emotions with respect to this sewing. I got to the point where the mess drove me cranky, where I talked back to the errant threads, and nearly threw out all the scraps. It was just so messy. I'm okay with not knowing where it will go, but the storm before the calm really got to me.
All that being said, I know that this will get bigger, be more. All in good time.
