What Feeds You?
At the beginning of the pandemic, I realized that I needed to identify what feeds me.
I asked such questions as:
What nourishes my mind, body and soul?
What brings my soul joy?
What routines do I want to maintain in this new and socially-distanced world?
What goals do I need to get through each day/s?
I realized that I needed to continue to share my yoga love with my community, as well as to stay productive. Therefore, Big Love Yoga was created and wanting yet more activity I started my “Crazy Covid Quilt” repair. More about my big embroidery project.
My CoVid Crazy Quilt
A kaleidoscopic fairytale of fabrics
When I last was in Florida to visit my dear friend and owner of this art/yoga space (beachsideartsandbeyond.com), I found a vintage Crazy Quilt at the local thrift store. I could not believe my eyes when I saw it hanging on the racks. My mother has a family crazy quilt that hangs on her walls and I have always adored it. I LOVE the bright colors, handwork, and time that went into such a creation. So within a few minutes the quilt was grabbed, bagged, and packaged to head home to DC.
When I brought it home, I saw that most of the silk panels had disintegrated. Discouraged by this revelation, I hid the blanket away. Subsequently, I learned that many Victorian silks were embedded with metals to give skirts rustle and weight which tended to damage the fabrics over time.
The Victorian crazy quilt craze is thought to be inspired by 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition’s Japanese pavilion that featured asymmetric art and crazed ceramics. This opened the creative doors to women who hand-embroidered random shapes of velvet, silk, and brocade fabric with bright threads/floss. Crazy quilting allowed women to display their artistic abilities in needlework, oil painting, and arrangement of embellishments, incorporating names, dates, pictures, and a wide assortment of symbols. Working on the quilt was (and is!) a good way to pass the time. This was quite the rage until 1910.
In early March, I rediscovered this treasure, and realized this would be a great project while binge watching shows with the family. I could feel like I was moving forward—creating—while being stuck at home. I dug through our home’s fabric scraps, outgrown clothes, and called out to neighbors for any unused fancy fabrics. I do feel a bit crazy myself with this obsession to select the perfect piece of my husband’s retired (maybe not before but certainly now) tie or my girls party dress to make my embroidered patches. A poem from The National Stockman and Farmer, c. January 1891, says, in horrified tone:
Oh the crazy quilt mania triumphantly raves,
And maid, wife, and widow are bound as its slaves.
On that quilt dimly seen as you rouse from your sleep
Your long-missing necktie in silence reposes.
And the filoselle insects that over it creep,
A piece of your vest half-conceals, half-discloses…
Your breakfasts are spoiled,
And your dinners half-boiled,
And your efforts to get a square supper are foiled
By the crazy quilt mania that fiendishly raves,
And to which all women are absolute slaves…
But make it she must,
She will do it or bust,
Beg, swap, and buy pieces, or get them on trust.
Oh, the crazy quilt mania, may it soon cease to rave
in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Resources
https://www.antiquequiltdating.com/The_Craze_for_Crazy_Quilts_began.html
http://www.womenfolk.com/quilting_history/crazy.htm
https://www.rockymountainquilts.com/files/antique_quilts_crazy.php
During this global pause, it’s been a great time to identify what feeds you. And remember, it is a pause. Things will get back to normal and we will all probably find ourselves wistfully remembering our weeks spent quilting, catching up on years of Netflix series, becoming teachers for our kids, and finding creative ways to wipe our bottoms (LOL).
