Joy in a time of Uncertainty

   Where does this story begin? 

I'll start with Project Quilting. It's a fun challenge oriented event, scheduled in the early winter, by Kim Lapacek. I think I stumbled across this challenge two or three years ago. It mostly corresponded with my time off from work, so it was something that kept me focused on quilting to a theme and I enjoy it very much. If you complete the challenge, your name gets put in a drawing. There's weekly drawings and then a final grand prize drawing. I've been lucky enough to win a few times and lucky enough to get to try out new products and be gifted with some fabric as well. Such is the case of the layer cake I used to make this quilt. 

  I'm not a modern quilter (for the most part) but I tried some of the predominant traits I see in them. Namely, Larger blocks more focused on the fabric than the piecing and More negative space. 

  So, I made this top and shared it with Project Quilting folks.  Joy@The Joyful Quilter  contacted me. I missed the email. She contacted me again. Joy offered to quilt this piece for me for free. ( WHAT!!!) Joy explained that someone did something nice for her earlier and she wanted to continue in that vein... sharing it forward. At the time, I was still in lock down from Covid and couldn't go out shopping. I explained I didn't have backing fabric that large here. (Remember, I'm mostly an art quilter) So Joy said," Nevermind, I'll do the backing fabric too." So, I mailed it to her. 

  Meanwhile, Covid continued, then my husband when back to work. Then I did as well... at severely reduced hours. I'm not going to say everything is back to normal at this point because it's not. I am not an essential worker but I go out among the public every day and try to make people happy, with all the precautions of mask wearing, temp checks, sanitizing, etc.. We just hope everyone plays along and remembers to keep their masks on. Some just don't. 

  Anyway, a package arrived and in it held a beautifully quilted quilt back from Joy. I just had to bind it and it would be finished. So, I jumped onto that as soon as I could. Hours at work changed from day to evening, so some was done in the evenings after work and some in the morning before. It's done! And here it is!   I dreamed of doing a better photo shoot for this, but at the moment, this is the best I can do.  

I never would have thought to do swirls on this. Let's be honest, I never would have made it this wonderful. It's quilted with a  light turquoise colored thread. I never would have thought of that either.  

I recently listened to a YouTube called "Karen's Quilt Circle with Anita Zorbens". It's a new off shoot of "Just get it done Quilts" You Tube channel. Anyway, it was about thread and needles. One thing Anita was saying is quilting with "in between" colors or pastels would read as white on white fabrics and blend nicely with others. I had an ah ha moment because I had Joy's example right before me. The thread reads white and gives dimension on the whites while blends nicely with all the other colors. So, Joy taught me a wonderful lesson. Thank you again for that, Joy! 

 

Now a brief word about generosity and making connections. I'm a introverted artist. I observe and I'm not particularly good at socializing. I'm not saying I glower in the corner of all gatherings, but my first instinct is to sit in the corner and watch everything rather than wear the lampshade. Communicating on the computer is easier for me, even though I keep having to learn all sorts of technical things and still type with two fingers. 

I've spent a lifetime now in the arts. Quilters tend to say we are the most generous group of people.  I've seen, over the years, just how generous quilters can be in making quilts for those in need. Veterans. Hurricane survivors. Children at risk. All the masks quilters made for Covid. Quilters are generous people, no doubt about it. People who receive these gifts have no idea how valuable they are. The money involved, certainly, but also the time involved. 

For me to have received this gift from Joy, it's a bit different. I'm not in need and I know full well the value of this gift. Her final response was:

Thank you, again, for trusting me with your quilt. It was an honor to do this for you. I hope you will remember the experience fondly as one of the GOOD things that happened during the pandemic and "pay it forward" at some point in the future.

I certainly will, Joy. Thank You again.