Making, Publicly

Earlier this year I made the decision to start quilting on my 15-minute breaks at work.  The building has a beautiful lobby with tons of natural light and the 10:30 a.m. sunshine -- it's unlike anything.   To just sit there and sew for 15 minutes.  Since February, everyday I've been quilting in public in my super posh office building and I have made so much progress!  Travel quilt #4 (which was originally started for my 2013 book Quilting on the Go) was going to be the big quilt project in the book but when we were going through what to include, the art team didn't like the colors -- they didn't think it fit in with everything else in the book and so the idea was scrapped.  Of course I had already started making the quilt...

I wrote on the stars as I had been doing with Travel Quilt #3.  I would write the date and the place- city and state, and if there was an event-- My cousin Janel's wedding, George's 3rd birthday, etc.  It sat and waited for 5ish years and then I picked it up again.  I'm not doing a lot of pleasure travel these days so Travel Quilt #4 was mostly stitched at the dojo, in the laundromat, also on Richard's couch, and on that little couch in the lobby in my office.

photo by @marini.richard

And it's finished. This May I finished Travel Quilt 4.  It still has the templates in the sides and I have to top stitch  down the borders... don't really know what color I want to go with yet .. (*in other news I have a new sewing space! But I'll save that for different post )

So yes, I have been posting sporadically on Instagram for #TheHundredDayProject where I have pledged to spend 100 days quilting in public. So far so good but I usually don't on the weekends because I'd rather stay in and quilt at home. 

When I'm out there quilting in the world, a lot of people ask me (mostly my co-workers) what I'm doing and how long it's going to take and if I would sell my quilts or if I do sell my quilts ... and the answer is:

I don't want to monetize my hobby.  I don't want to commercialize what brings me comfort.  I make quilts for me and those people around me in my nest of comfort where I feel both powerful and soft.  ;)

I think more people would benefit from the task of making things for pleasure.  The repetition of it.  The slow and steady progress.  And the satisfaction that comes, even many years later, from being able to USE what you've made. 
(I am sitting on Travel Quilt #2 right now)