Yesterday I spent a few hours working on the quilt that I named
GOOD enough COVID 19.
The name had a lot to do with letting things be good enough during difficult times.
As I've worked on it another name has come...
Holding Breath.
One of my reactions to stress over the last few years has been holding my breath. It's kind of ironic because at least once a day, while at work, I coach an upset child to take a deep breath.
There are other reasons the name fits, how the cloth used for masks held our breath the most obvious. When I think about the years we lived with Covid as a pandemic, so much of it will be about breath.
Filling the gaps between the squares. What is working the best for me is to:
- stitch 3 sides of a strip
- place it right side to right side with one of the blocks
- stitch down the fourth side along one of the blocks
- flip the strip over to cover the gap
- stich in place
As I work towards piecing all the squares together, 6 feet by 6 feet, I think a lot about distance, about making things fit.
This is the other memory I will hold on to as I think about the pandemic.
And then I started thinking about bandages.
That was random, but maybe not.
The theme might have been continued by making calendula salve but really it just had been on the to-do list for too long.
I think of this as healing our environment...waste stream, invasive, ruderial.
The golden is buddleia, in process, and the khaki is the bindweed pigment, mulled and with a binder added.
When the bindweed pigment was wet I thought it looked like the color of Gibson and Timber's eyes.
Bindweed, morning glory...coming back to thinking about names.
Does healing start with naming?