Light

The due date came and went for another issue of Kalos. In my preparations for the Christmas bazaar, I completely missed it. Thankfully, the editors are gracious, and they gave me a little extension, so I was able to submit something for possible inclusion in the journal.

The theme for this issue is "Light," which I was really excited about. I'm a big fan of light in all its forms: sunshine, bonfires, candles, well lit rooms, Christmas lights. I love me some light. It's one of my very most favorite things along with warmth, South Jersey, soft things, mathematical patterns, back rubs, hand-made things, adolescent escapist literature, and dark chocolate.

For the past several years, I've been in kind of a difficult place, unable to find myself in the transition from rock star dreaming to being a wife of a seminary student. It's been a surprisingly dark and lonely place for me. But I'm beginning to see now how God has shown up in little places, how He's given me moments here and there that let me know that He's here and that just because I feel lost doesn't mean that He doesn't know where I am or where I'm going. In other words, He's given me windows...little windows to shed just enough light to allow me to keep moving forward.

I was inspired by this idea of windows of light shining through the darkness. And I had an idea for another wall-hanging, this one would be more of a mini-quilt, based on the traditional quilting style called "cathedral window." I had no idea how to go about making a cathedral window quilt, but I found this very helpful tutorial and thought it looked "simple enough." I took an old gray sheet that I bought at a yard sale (behind the golf clubs), and I set to work. (That's right. Check me out. Re-purposing fabric, being all green and whatnot.) I was pleasantly surprised by how mathematical the process was. It includes a lot of folding and ironing, kinda like making those paper cootie-catcher, fortune teller things you make in 3rd grade to confirm by handmade fortune-telling means that you'll marry Marty Halldorson when you grow up. Sorry...rabbit trail...

Anyway, I ironed 9 blocks and decided I needed 3 more. Then I sewed the blocks together and decided I needed to go shopping for more fabric because I wanted a variety of yellows and patterns for my windows. So I got more fabric and then decided that I needed to hand-sew all of the blocks in place. Because I'm insane. Who cares about special orders and Christmas presents and a wretchedly dirty apartment, all of which really need to be taken care of right now, when you have an extra project that would just be so cool if you sewed it all by hand completely unnecessarily?!? Not me. So I proceeded with my insanity and hand-sewed around each of the 17 blocks, which might not sound like very many. It didn't sound like very many when I decided to do it. Trust me. Seventeen is a fair few. Once I finally finished all that, I decided I had put my fingers through enough thoroughly superfluous torture and machine-sewed the triangles around the edges of the mini-quilt.

I just realized that you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. Here's a picture of the final project to aid comprehension. (If you click on the picture, you'll be able to see all of my hand-stitching.)
I absolutely LOVE this. If it's not my very most favorite thing I've ever made, it's definitely up there and maybe only doesn't claim the top spot because I didn't have enough gray fabric to make a full quilt...which I likely would have done. Because I'm crazy, and it's December 14th, so obviously, I should be making something for myself. Foolish. But as I was saying, I love this thing. It's so soft. And I love the color combination. And it was just so fun to make. So you can be sure there will be more of these in the future. But they will not be hand-sewn. And they will not be made in December unless I actually plan on giving them away. Not likely. Because seriously, something handmade and soft and warm and mathematical and reminiscent of light that can be cozied up in while eating dark chocolate in South Jersey, having my back rubbed, and reading Twilight...you just can't expect a girl to part with something like that.