On UFOs (Unfinished Objects) - This stuff matters... often more than we realize.

Reposted from 1/14/13

Since then, years have passed, my daughter has grown older, and she now maintains an Instagram of her own artwork!

Update: City Quilter will be closing its brick and mortar store on 10/26/16.)

A full decade (and lots of hand-stitching) after I began this project, I took a picture of a quilt I have completed. I took this picture at Christmas, looking up at the front porch, outside, while visiting my in-laws home (in the background), since, where the heck do you hang and photograph a 6'x6' quilt in New York City apartment?  At the time of this photograph, the quilting was finished, and only binding remained to be done. Completely hand-pieced, hand-sewn, and hand-quilted, I often questioned my own sanity, but ultimately, I feel the satisfaction of really calling it "finished".  

With this post, I specifically want to highlight the incredible difficulty of finding just the right fabrics and colors to make this quilt.  I spent a solid two months looking for the right fabrics back then, venturing out to many stores to get the combination of colors I needed.  Nowadays, there is a much closer option... City Quilter.  While not in the garment district, it is energetically walkable, taxiable... subwayable.  For my next quilt... and yes, there will be a next... that will be my destination.

This quilt is a fabric interpretation of a painting my sister created when I was little (1976).  It is called "Family".  My goal was to make a quilt with no machine stitching anywhere at all.  I envision "speaking" to the great-granchildren I may never meet through my own hand-stiching. Please feel more than free to love it, hate it, not understand it.  It's not for display, sale, or art... just love. Our family will be sleeping under it.

Hanging kinda crooked - I was cold and impatient while taking this picture!

My 11 year-old daughter wrote many test essays during her test practice sessions for an entrance exam she just took for a specialized school.  This particular topic in her prep notebook:  "Someone Who Makes a Difference in My Life".  I happened to take a look at it one day, and saw this...