A friend of mine has a textiles business, and periodically she offers me her offcuts from curtains, bedspreads, tablecloths, and more, so I have a collection of various linens and cottons in neutral colors. I sorted through them and picked out some of the smaller bits, then began laying them out randomly, knowing I wanted to push away from the conventional rectangle and grids. One of the fabrics appeared to have been treated with something, and, when ironed, it scorched in a way that I liked.
But I am at heart a colorist, so color did creep in, here in the form of some hand-dyed cotton. I limited the palette to just two colors: a golden yellow and a deep blue, and angled them as if they were about to talk to each other. This quilt wanted a few words, and they came to me as the title, which I then stenciled onto a piece of the linen. As part of the composition, I added a few of the color strips to the binding as well. The quilt is in response to my materials and my current emotional state, not made for any particular show or call for entries. It may fit one down the line, but for now, just itself for itself. Thinking about conversations I cannot have with certain people, both still living and not.
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