When I started, I had three goals in mind. First, reduce my collection of batting and fabric scraps from past projects. Second, make a "string" quilt which was on my project wish list. And finally, use a technique called Quilt-As-You-Go which would allow me to do extra quilting on my project than I had previously been able to do on my domestic machine.
I still consider myself a beginner quilter so pushing a large quilt through the throat of a small machine and keeping the back smooth without puckers had kept me quilting only what was necessary to hold my quilt together. In addition, I'm still gaining confidence in keeping consistency in my quilting. By quilting smaller segments, I could stitch to my heart's content. In fact, I said many times as it was constructed, "I'm quilting this thing to death and loving every minute of doing so."
I am a practical person by nature. As I looked at my growing pile of batting scraps leftover from past quilting projects, I knew the time had come to use and reduce the supply. I had read about using a foundation to make string blocks. Instead of using muslin or foundation paper to secure my blocks, I cut my batting scraps to 11 in. size and sewed the fabric strips to the batting instead.
I had seen photos of string quilts on Pinterest that had captured my attention. Beautiful quilts emerged as many different scraps were included giving the quilt life and movement. Although I felt my pile of fabric scraps was growing and feeling out of control to me, in reality I didn't really have a huge variety of scraps. I see beautiful scrap quilts and know that they contain hundreds of different fabrics and I laughingly say, "I need to make some more quilts so that I can have some leftover scraps for my scrap quilt." I know, my logic is skewed but I was in the mood for a scrap quilt.
I had accumulated a fairly large pile of white strips which would be perfect for a string quilt since my favorite quilt photos suggested using a white fabric strip down the center of each block. Yay, the first part of the project has been tackled.
Next came a review of my scrap supply. It seems I have made a lot of projects with teals and blues. Although this is a scrap quilt, I still wanted a color palette that would complement my home and these colors would be perfect.
So, why Redemption?
I was able to make the entire quilt with materials I already had, and it cost me nothing. (Although, I confess that I did buy fabric for the backside because I wanted the same color rather than scrappy on the back). My pile of batting and fabric scraps were no longer scraps but were now redeemed and part of a finished quilt.
The more I thought about this quilt, the more I thought about the spiritual correlation of Jesus's redemption for us. Redemption is a fitting name for this quilt.
When you get close to a scrap quilt you see the flaws, the imperfections, the loose threads, the mis-matched colors, and crooked seams. However, when you step back, you see a beautiful colorful quilt. Christ does this for us by taking our messy lives, our excess junk, our crooked seams, and creates something beautiful. He redeems the things we are ashamed of or no longer want in our lives and makes them new.
The best scrap quilts are the ones with the most colors and in spiritual terms, they are the lives with the most experiences. This is God's redemption. When you step back, you no longer see the imperfections, but instead you see a beautiful life.
Redemption had a cost, it cost Christ everything.
Every quilt tells a
story. This is Redemption's story. A special quilt with a significant name.
I was so moved by recording Redemption's quilt story that I wrote Hands of the Master Quilter, also found on my blog.
Every
Quilt Tells a Story
Whether
it is the fabrics chosen, the design, the colors, the occasion, the recipient,
or the people I quilt with, every quilt tells a story. This blog captures in
images and words what has been created for others and for my own home through
the hum and stitching of my sewing machine.
Comments
Post a Comment