Let it Flow

Naming quilts isn’t my forte.

By nature, I feel the pressure to somehow come up with an inspired and interesting name for each of the more technical quilts I finish now, moreso than when I first started.

I remember when numbering them seemed like a good idea even if just for my own reference – since I make my own labels it was easy to add numbers to each one – and I only made “special” labels when giving a gift or when a customer requested some personalization after the quilt was finished.

However, I’ve now progressed to wanting special labels on most of my bigger quilts with more intricate stitching – not only for posterity but also because there’s something beautiful about a custom label on a handmade item.  No matter where the quilt ends up (and most of mine are sold) there will be a part of it that tells people who made it and when, along with where it fits in my story (numbers).  It gives me room to include a favourite quote or information about the pattern, whether it was original or not etc.

I like to sew this type onto the backing fabric before the quilting is done so my stitching goes right through the label, making it a part of the quilt itself rather than an “add-on”.  BUT I’m still not at the point where I actually remember to do that every time, and this quilt is an example of that!

So when I took this quilt off the frame and went to bind it, I noticed I had forgotten to make a label.  And if I’m going to make a label I need a name.  That little glitch then interrupted my routine of trimming and binding immediately after unloading and I had to sit down and really think about what the heck I was going to call it!  I could go on about the various things that came to mind and the mental blocks that caused delay, bit I eventually settled on “Let it Flow” because that’s exactly what I did while quilting it.

Some of the stitching on this was practice using ideas I’ve seen and liked and wanted to try, and some of it was a complete deviation from the original plan because that’s what happens when I am in “the zone”.  So I let it flow.  No regulation (except for the ruler work), just free motion in manual mode, me and my machine learning to work together in our own unique rhythm, which is getting more fine tuned as we go along 🙂

It was fun and therapeutic and on the practical side it gave me ideas for more quilts like this where I can work on the solid areas I love to play in with a bit of structure (using the seam lines to define my spaces) and combine colors that are trendy and fun for modern whole cloth quilt results.

There’s a short video at the bottom showing a bit of stitching just for fun; most of this you have probably seen before in my other videos so I didn’t record a lot of detail work, just enough to give you an idea of the process I used 🙂