I’m a sometime quilter. By that, I mean while I have made since the age of seventeen more than forty quilts of all different sizes and complexity, I can go years between projects. I could say I come by quilting naturally. Both my paternal grandmother Emma and my maternal grandmother Mary were quilters. But while Emma’s quilts were works of art, Mary’s quilts were strictly utilitarian. My quilts take after Grandma Mary.
I’m working on a quilt now – a wedding present for my nephew. To begin the quilt, I turned to my fabric stash of flannel. There’s enough material there for several quilt tops. I was astonished to find a number of half-finished blocks that I do not remember making. Three inch squares, six inch squares, strings of various widths stitched together into long stripes. But while there was plenty of whole cloth and pieces, somehow the colors of the bits and pieces weren’t working for me. So off to the quilt shop to find some fabric to bind the disparate parts together. Quilting, or rather at this point, piecing in summer is not the best idea, but we’ve been having a stretch of cool rainy weather, so the work has been a pleasant pastime.
Until.
Two thirds of the top is pieced and pinned. I had not initially cut enough squares, so I set it aside to cut and assemble the component blocks. As I said, like my Grandma Mary, this is a utilitarian quilt – four-patch blocks of three inch squares alternating with six inch squares. Piecing was coming along quite well. So I began assembling the sub-blocks without referencing the two-thirds that was finished. Big mistake. I put the wrong corners together. The four patch blocks alternate light and dark squares with a dark square in the upper left hand corner. The blocks I just completed have a light square in the upper left hand corner. Oops. Time to let ‘er rip.
Any seamstress (although I understand that now the politically acceptable term is sewist) is familiar with perhaps one of the most valuable tools in her kit – the seam ripper. (I wonder what sewists and tailors used before this marvelous invention – a straight pin or needle, perhaps) But. I’m working with flannel, I’ve been using a fairly small stitch setting, and I’ve lock-stitched the ends of each block. What this means is that due to the nap of the flannel, the stitches tend to bury themselves in the fabric, the short stitch length, while strong and durable means each stitch is smaller than the point of the seam ripper, and the lockstitch or backstitch at the end of each block is trebly hard to get at. Add to that, ripping seams requires both visual acuity and manual dexterity – two things that, as I approach my 70th birthday have diminished. All that said to say – it’s a dang hard and slow process.
There’s an old proverb, “marry in haste, repent at leisure.” What it means is that going into a project or making a decision hastily can lead to regret later on. In my case what it means is proceeding overconfidently without checking the reference piece means hours of carefully unpicking every single cotton-picking stitch, taking care not to damage the material of the blocks.
We do that in life, too, don’t we? We think we have the process down pat, the knowledge and wisdom necessary, all the required tools, and forge ahead. Maybe it’s because we’ve walked this particular path before. Maybe it’s because we’ve received bad advice. Or maybe it’s because we are so focused on the goal we desire we don’t bother to read the reference manual. What reference manual? We do have one. It’s called the Bible. No, the Bible will not tell me to double check that the dark square is in the upper left corner of each quilt block. But it will tell me how to have an intimate relationship with the God who created me. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength. And love your neighbor as yourself.” Beyond those basics, the book of Proverbs is filled with practical advice warning about hanging out in bad company, going into debt, living a selfish life, and so on and so on and so on. Violate these basic principles and at some point down the road, we will have to rip out the stitches. And let me tell ya, ripping out the stitches takes a whole lot more time than sewing the correct seam in the first place.
Kathy Kexel 