Suddenly, Quilts!

While watching the documentary “A Century of Quilts: America in Cloth”, I caught phrases that echoed in me: "It took on a life of its own… I became completely wrapped up in what I’m doing… It’s not like we suddenly discovered something, it’s that we fell in love with the traditional (quilts)… You begin the project but about half way through, you’re no longer in control… it will tell you when it’s finished…" And I thought, that’s the ‘allowing the flow to come through and manifest’ process of creating. At our best, we humanbeings do not create, or ‘make’ anything. We do our best when we step into the great river of Life just as we are, join in the flow, and simply allow it to come through us. Because what comes through and catches and stays with each of us is caught by the net of our life’s purpose (ideally that’s our conscious intention as well, because that means we’re not trying to catch something else that isn’t aligned with the purpose we came into this world with). And what we catch this way, in and with the flow of life, is what we can best work with, express through, interpret with our own filters, and bring to fruition of beauty, harmony, grace, abundance, and for the greatest good of all, uniquely stamped with each of our own ‘signature’.

The greatest gift of it all, is that we get to witness this magical process emerge from inside ourselves, gestate, take nurture, take shape, and grow, until finally we give birth to it and thus creativity is manifested and delivered to the world. This is how all beings in creation, whether a flower or an insect or a human, re-experience creation, divinity, oneness, a piece of what it’s like to be God, because we are each a part of God.

We are, at our best, conveyors and interpreters of the Creativity that chose us, individual and unique lenses that focus on certain ways of seeing and transmitting the beauty of Creation.

It still boggles my mind that I’ve never been aware or heard of this phenomenon until a 7 or 8 months ago.

Nevertheless, I now believe, from the depth of my being, this is what true creativity is. It isn’t yours, it isn’t mine, it comes from one and the same source. There is only one, and it is all of ours.

A ‘NEW’ WAY OF CREATING & WORKING: Just begin with an idea. It doesn’t even have to be a great idea. Just begin, and more will come. That’s how it goes. This, instead of my habitual masterplanning of a whole project at the beginning. Mapping out every detail of design before I even leave the sketchpad. Of course, by the time that's complete I am often exhausted mentally and physically, my vision having taken me so far into the future I feel as if I’ve already seen the finished product, my emotions never got to come out all the way and sink its teeth into manifestation.

It is strange though, that I’ve suddenly developed an interest in quilting in the last few months, not having sewn anything other than the occasional button since my teenage years, I’m not even sure I remember how to.

I sense that I am drawn to quilting now because it is very much a form of meditation, and that it presents itself as a natural medium for symbolizing, preserving, and passing on of messages from one generation to another, from the past to the future, from family to family, culture to culture. It is rich with layers of imagery, colour, texture, poetry, narrative, design, emotions, meaning… The linear designs of quilts also appeal to my old love of graphic design. In making an image graphic, as opposed to realistic or representational, the ‘flattening’ and ‘collapsing’ of the perspectives solidifies the essence of the image through simplification, and convey it to our senses much more immediately and focused in energy. And because its form is traditionally something we wrap ourselves in for warmth and comfort, it can’t help but invite you to touch it, caress it, connect with it. Whatever the design, it always feels like it came from Mom (or grandma), our first Goddess, with her loving attention, wisdom, and wish in every stitch—even those quilted by men.

Of course, it remains to be seen (mostly by me) whether I will become a vessel for the quilting art. ;D

(Quilt shown above: Joyride by Libby Lehman)