SUMMER FLOWERS selected for 2014 AQS QuiltWeek/ Des Moines

Summer Flowers Quilt.

Semi-finalist for International Quilt Show. 2014 AQS QuiltWeek/ Des Moines, Iowa   

"We are most present in what we have created, I think, because creation is perhaps what links us most closely to the life of God." - Forward Day by Day, August 24.

One of the things I love about quilting is its ability to remind us to hope: that where we are is not the only place to be.  This is particularly helpful when we are going through a "challenging" time. The process of designing and creating can transform us as we  transform scraps of fabric into something beautiful.

Purple flower, upper left corner.

Such was my journey when making this quilt, Summer Flowers.

I always look forward to spring when life bursts forth from the ground.  From spring through summer there are flowers in abundance, painting the land with color again.  Hope and new life arriving with each new bloom.  When I look on the flowers, I smile, and enjoy a moment.  A moment of drinking in beauty, peace and wonder.

    The winter I created this quilt, was a long, hard one.  I didn't want to wait for Spring to slowly unfold. I wanted summer NOW.  I needed to spring out of winter right into summer: a reminder of new life. Designing and making this quilt helped to keep me focused on hope, that there was something more around the corner: and that I could burst and bloom in living color, just like the flowers do.

Red flower. made with a ga-zillion red scraps from my stash.

   The Scandinavians have long winters too, yet use such bright colors in their designs.  I think they must understand the need for hopeful color, too. So I took my inspiration from their cheery decorative Tolle painting designs and created my own bright, colorful flowers, bursting in full bloom.

   The blocks are set un-traditionally, yet framed by a traditional green sashing.  Like nature, all flowers are set to shine against their green foliage.

"Creativity is seeing possibilities that we have not seen before and seeing connections between patches of truth and beauty then responding to them in a way we have not done before." -Neal A. Maxwell