I've always liked using my hands. I've been called a jill of all trades. I wouldn't say i'm specifically into one thing but i like to try many different creative processes. In 2009, when i was a bartender, i was also getting on ladders before work and painting the building, ha!
So, in 2016, i was in soft, warm and cuddly things mommy mode. I decided after my daughter was born, i would make a quilt. I began the process when i was going downhill. It was therapeutic....and happy. I had a pinterest board full of things i just wasn't going to be able to make. There was this dress called sunshine that i wanted to make for my daughter but i instead decided on something she couldn't outgrow. A quilt.
I had no idea what i was doing and only can work a sewing machine at basic level. But i had ideas. I went to a fabric store and searched for all the right shades of yellow and orange sunbeams, blue for the sky. I took a large childrens roll of paper and laid out two rows on my living room area rug. I decided the measurements would be close to 5x7, since thats the space i was working with. I started drawing rays. Then, i proceeded to cut the rays and label each one A,B, C, D, etcetera. I remember standing and looking down and thinking, i like this. This is how you take something large and make it...in small pieces, piece by piece. Something large can seem so overwhelming to tackle but once you break anything into tinier bits, most things are absolutely possible.
I then took the pieces of fabric as my 2 year old pulled and tugged and rolled in the fabric and began to lay the colors out. I decided i could use fabric as my canvas. It was different than when i painted but it was similar in so many ways. Then i pinned everything together. This took months. By the time i was ready to sew, i was really struggling to sit up for any length of time and i would instantly begin spinning out into terrible vertigo like neurological episodes at the sewing machine. I was desperately trying to find answers during this beginning of my demise. Answers, i never really got. I kinda thought this would all be resolved one day soon and a terrible distant memory. Little did i realize that it was the beginning of a new life where things were taken away from me one by one. Cooking, walking, showering, and so many other things. So, it goes without saying, i clearly remember this as some of the last days of my freedom. How ironic i chose to make... a sunshine for the coming and incredibly strong storm that was slowly treading into the perimeters of my life.
It was really satisfying to use the sewing machine to seal the promiscuous seams, permanently, forever attached...these rays would be to one another. They would keep my children warm for years and years to come. All because of single stitches that when used in multitude created a strong force that couldn't be torn apart. I liked this idea. It brought me...satisfaction. Next, i bought the batting and layered the bottom side with avocado green because...well, grass. I love using natures palette. The walls of my house are also nature infused, marigold living room, sky blue and grass green bathroom, blue family room for the sky, sand brown hallway to ground everyone upon entering their day and retreating into their nights. I rarely randomly pick colors. Their is mostly intention.
I pieced it together...slowly...and right before i fell off a cliff in 2017, i finished my sunshine quilt. Not a day too soon or late. It arrived just in time for this new chapter i never saw coming and it covered me as i lay in a coma like state for most of the following 2 years. It brought my small daughter much joy to cuddle in with me during a very uncertain time for her and i .
Its funny how life works like that. There really is always sunshine though...even in the deepest and most incessant of storms. One may not see it for a great many years...but never forget...you will again because its simply the laws of nature.
"Cover me in sunshine
Shower me with good times
Tell me that the world's been spinning since the beginning
And everything will be alright
Cover me in sunshine"
So, in 2016, i was in soft, warm and cuddly things mommy mode. I decided after my daughter was born, i would make a quilt. I began the process when i was going downhill. It was therapeutic....and happy. I had a pinterest board full of things i just wasn't going to be able to make. There was this dress called sunshine that i wanted to make for my daughter but i instead decided on something she couldn't outgrow. A quilt.
I had no idea what i was doing and only can work a sewing machine at basic level. But i had ideas. I went to a fabric store and searched for all the right shades of yellow and orange sunbeams, blue for the sky. I took a large childrens roll of paper and laid out two rows on my living room area rug. I decided the measurements would be close to 5x7, since thats the space i was working with. I started drawing rays. Then, i proceeded to cut the rays and label each one A,B, C, D, etcetera. I remember standing and looking down and thinking, i like this. This is how you take something large and make it...in small pieces, piece by piece. Something large can seem so overwhelming to tackle but once you break anything into tinier bits, most things are absolutely possible.
I then took the pieces of fabric as my 2 year old pulled and tugged and rolled in the fabric and began to lay the colors out. I decided i could use fabric as my canvas. It was different than when i painted but it was similar in so many ways. Then i pinned everything together. This took months. By the time i was ready to sew, i was really struggling to sit up for any length of time and i would instantly begin spinning out into terrible vertigo like neurological episodes at the sewing machine. I was desperately trying to find answers during this beginning of my demise. Answers, i never really got. I kinda thought this would all be resolved one day soon and a terrible distant memory. Little did i realize that it was the beginning of a new life where things were taken away from me one by one. Cooking, walking, showering, and so many other things. So, it goes without saying, i clearly remember this as some of the last days of my freedom. How ironic i chose to make... a sunshine for the coming and incredibly strong storm that was slowly treading into the perimeters of my life.
It was really satisfying to use the sewing machine to seal the promiscuous seams, permanently, forever attached...these rays would be to one another. They would keep my children warm for years and years to come. All because of single stitches that when used in multitude created a strong force that couldn't be torn apart. I liked this idea. It brought me...satisfaction. Next, i bought the batting and layered the bottom side with avocado green because...well, grass. I love using natures palette. The walls of my house are also nature infused, marigold living room, sky blue and grass green bathroom, blue family room for the sky, sand brown hallway to ground everyone upon entering their day and retreating into their nights. I rarely randomly pick colors. Their is mostly intention.
I pieced it together...slowly...and right before i fell off a cliff in 2017, i finished my sunshine quilt. Not a day too soon or late. It arrived just in time for this new chapter i never saw coming and it covered me as i lay in a coma like state for most of the following 2 years. It brought my small daughter much joy to cuddle in with me during a very uncertain time for her and i .
Its funny how life works like that. There really is always sunshine though...even in the deepest and most incessant of storms. One may not see it for a great many years...but never forget...you will again because its simply the laws of nature.
"Cover me in sunshine
Shower me with good times
Tell me that the world's been spinning since the beginning
And everything will be alright
Cover me in sunshine"