Ancient fabrics

My fellow OCDers will appreciate the need to keep my hands busy. This has never been so true as the last few months, as this fall has been hellacious for my family on at least 4 fronts, simultaneously. I think we are thru the worst of it. My meditation skills, which are really skills in keeping calm, really have come in handy. When you want to scream or cry or give up… You somehow dissociate yourself instead, just sit on the side of the freeway and watch the cars go by. You don’t realize what meditation does for you until you see how calm you can be in a crisis. It’s like magic.

As you know, another way I cope is by making quilts. I rescue vintage quilt tops off Ebay and finish them. I love postage stamp and scrap quilts. Here’s 2 in progress, and 2 quilt tops waiting for some attention.

The beige and brown diamond quilt top is the newest one. It arrived today covered in cat hair. I threw it in the wash but in the back of my mind I wondered if it would come out shredded… And it did. Normally I would not wash a quilt top… Especially a hand sewn one… but I got lucky with washing the dark blue one. Not so with this one.

Almost every block lost seams or saw the fabric disintegrate. I could try to patch it but it won’t survive the next washing well either and quilts have to be washable. I suppose it could become a wall hanging but there are just too many defects now to fix. It is a beautiful pattern and the fabrics are great, but quite thin and delicate.

Maybe somehow I’ll find some way to save it.