Quilting Bliss

Sometimes it all comes together and your work gives you a gift. Last night I found myself hand basting the layers of my larger Lily quilt together. The house windows were open, the Delta breeze kicked in-the evening was lovely.

Outside I heard the breeze rustling the leaves and the sounds of a train. The air was heavy with the perfume of Sweet Broom and Mock Orange. The pond across the street had a bevy of toads in full chorus. I was alone working so I could fully hear and appreciate all that was going on around me.

I’m hand basting this particular quilt “the Sharon way” as I call it, meaning the way I learned from Sharon Schamber. Hand basting a quilt together can be quite meditative.

The feel of this quilt is so luscious. My top is constructed from nubby hand dyed raw silk and the center is Radiance by Robert Kaufman. Radiance is 55% cotton and 45% silk, woven in such a way the wrong side behaves like cotton and the right side shimmers and behaves like silk charmeuse.

It     is      heaven to touch.

Patting the top into place as I baste, I revel in the textural feel of the nubby silk next to the luxurious silkiness of the Radiance, all this atop some airy wool batting. I’m taking my stitches through this lovely sandwich of fabulous fibers, enjoying every stitch.

I’m planning my quilting process, thinking about what fill stitches I will use, what threads, what colors. It just hits me-these moments of bliss and joy. This, is a quilt skipping moment.

THIS is why I quilt.