The Design

I read something really cool the other day about quilts.   Yes.....quilts.  

There is a long standing tradition to leave a mistake within the quilt because life isn't perfect.

I love that.   

My friend Mitzi used to quilt. I'm not sure how she caught the bug but as with anything she's done in her life, she tackled quilting in a big way.  I remember watching her work on a quilt stretched taut by a  frame her father had made, and being quietly impressed as she worked away.  

The whole process fascinated me. Simple yet complicated.  Easy at first glance, but wrought with precision.  The quilter, whether they do it by hand or by machine is a true artist, pouring scads of hours, thought, work, attention and love into something the thoughtless might regard as  mundane as a blanket.

Lives are like quilts.  

We pour almost innumerable hours, days and thoughts into what we wish our lives to be, and cocoon our souls in that hand crafted blanket.  That had to be one of the inspirations for the AIDS quilt, and now that I really think about it....what an incredibly beautiful concept. 

In the small picture, each minute is an intricate stitch on a canvas we won't fully see until it's finished.  And each quilt will have a mistake or two.....or 60 or 1000 or even more, but the quality is entirely up to us, as is the design.