You might empathize with this sentiment…. sometimes you just sink your entire heart and soul into a project, not necessarily quilting. My Thread Journey is my most recent heart-and-soul (quilty) project! It was made as a companion piece for my Subtle Strings Thread collectionYou may remember it hanging at Aurifil‘s booth at Fall Houston Market last year. You have seen pictures of the quilt quite often on this blog post-Market…
Thread Journey is my heart-and-soul project because I sought to encompass all that I have learned about quilting (particularly domestic machine quilting) since I took up quilting in 2005, from not ever touching a sewing machine to the present. It is a quilt of my own original design, and I stayed up many a night just thinking about the design, and colors! The quilt also has little details from my previous quilts to tie in the “journey” part.
Thread Journey is being shown in Alex Veronelli’s (of Aurifil) lectures this year. A great honor. I actually have a “behind the scene” story to share about Thread Journey. I would like the story to be more dramatic, but it isn’t really.
September through November last year were probably the most stressful months I remember experiencing the entire year last year. I had three trips to make within the span of 3 1/2 weeks that included Market, teaching at Annie’s Craft Festival, and filming three new online classes back to back. And of course, with each trip, I had to carve out a large chunk of time to make sure things are in order at home (i.e., laying out Miss Baby’s clothes, getting her schedule written out etc) before I could leave in good conscience. And then, there’s packing props and things which always make me feel uncertain because I was scared to death I would forget something!!!
And of course, a huge (not size, but of importance) prop that I was bringing with me to Fall Market last year was my Thread Journey quilt… because it was going to hang at Aurifil‘s booth! I took it with me in my carry-on, for fear of losing it if packed in my checked baggage.
I had fallen sick right up till Market… so, that hampered the progress of my work quite a bit. I managed to finish quilting the quilt the night before I was to catch my flight to Houston. I remembered having lunch with Miss Baby on the day I left because I knew I won’t be picking her up as I usually do. Then off to the airport I went, sharing a van ride with a couple of very cool veterans, one of whom is now an accomplished artist! As much as I enjoyed the navy officer-turned-artist story, I was thinking about… how unfinished my Thread Journey was: the binding was not done, the yoyo’s weren’t made, the hand embroidery not yet completed…
Now, you are SO un-impressed by the way I roll…. yeah, I can understand why! Last year was an exceptionally busy year for me! Long story short, I slept little night after I checked into the hotel, and managed to finish up the quilt exactly at 9:45am the following morning when I was supposed to bring by the finished quilt, my heart-and-soul quilt! That sense of relief — it is unexplainable!!!! Hearing quilters’ kind words on the quilt at Market meant the world to me.
I was able to have Thread Journey back with me for a few days last month. For the first time after I completed the quilt, I relived the moments of making the quilting up to the finishing point…. I realized it truly has been a journey!!! I took quite a few more pictures before I sent it on its way again… the following is one of them:
AND – the journey is continuing, so to speak. I am re-making this quilt, and will be offering this design as a free pattern in the near future so that we can share a quilting journey/adventure together. Check back on this blog, and stay tuned for details!
p.s. If you are new to this blog, Thread Journey’s Fall Market adventure is documented here.