How Does Your Garden Grow?– Part 1

Today I will tell you the tale of my garden scene quilt. First let me say a few words about time management. If you think something will only take 5 minutes, allot half an hour. If you think you can whip up a quilt in a day, then quilt it the next day (it’s only 24×36), you definitely need to give yourself a few extra days. That’s just what I thought about this quilt that I started it in January and finished it last week. Well almost finished, it still needs the binding.

There is an  annual art show called A Woman’s Perspective in my town. This year’s theme was Work & Play. At the last minute I decided to enter the show–about 2 weeks to deadline. The first thing I thought about was a garden scene. My garden is a hobby–both work and play for me. My original concept was to make some blue blocks on the top, and some green/brown blocks on the bottom representing sky and earth. The middle section would be a white background with plants thread painted to create the color. I did put the whole thing together in one day. The next day I loaded it on my longarm, then stared at that blank slate of white in the middle.

Nothing like a blank slate staring at me to create a blank slate in my mind. So now it’s day 2 and I’m already in trouble. But, I still have time to enter my piece of work. After some consideration, I decided to have carrots in the ground, tomatoes on the left side, and cone flowers on the right side. At first, I just tried drawing with my machine and then I spent some time ripping that out. Then I tried roughly drawing the details.

Roughly drawn cone flower--some stitching shown

After putting some of the plant elements into my scene, I went to work on the sky. Since my bottom right corner had carrots in it, I felt I needed a balance in the sky. So, I put a dragonfly in the sky. When I stood back from the quilt, I really didn’t see the dragonfly. I was also stumped by my quilting in the sky area. The stipple did not fit my vision at all. I was ready to spend hours ripping it out, when my trusty husband said, “Move on to another part and maybe the sky will come together in the end.”

dragonfly in the sky with a large stippled background

Well by now I can see my vision is not going to come together in the way I planned. I was at a dead end as how to finish the piece. At this point, I realize it will not be completed in time for the show. Also, life has caught up with me and I am ready to move on to other things. I have learned that if I persevere on something that I am having trouble with, (usually my mind/vision does not translate to reality), it is time to walk away. Sometimes those projects never do see the light of day again. But I know this has possibility so, I will revisit it at a later date.