There’s a lot of work I should be doing. It’s spring after all, and the yard needs work. Oh, and Allyson and I launch an app that we really need to market and promote. I should… uhm, could… be quite busy.

Instead, I dug around in my fabric stash yesterday, and started a new quilt.

My motivation might have been sparked by the series of novels I’m reading about quilting and the women who make them. But, if I look back on the quilts I’ve made over the last 10 years, I notice I tend to make a quilt soon after someone I love dies.

Memory or memorial quilts. Another type of shrine I suppose.

Of course I am thinking of Tomi. As I look outside, spring is all around, new growth, yellow and red flowers, bright colours, light… exactly what Tomi would love.

So don’t ask my why I chose brown and black fabric, I just did. This quilt will be beautiful, yet the dark colours are contrary to everything, Tomi and I am unwilling to change this pallet. (I am as stubborn as she ever was.)

As a rule, I make up quilt designs as I go. I rarely follow a pattern. It drives Ken crazy because I do not plan a quilt. I start cutting fabric, sew it together and watch a pattern emerge. If I don’t like it, I take it apart and start over. Ken thinks I could save a lot of time and heartache by having a plan, but that would drive me crazy, so he has learned to wait, let me have my process, and see what we get.

Still I want this quilt to connect to Tomi in some fashion, and the colours won’t do it. I have an idea of what I want which is different from a plan, so I went online for a little help and clarification.

I saw it. A quilt very close to what I had in mind. The name of the quilt is the Straight and Narrow. There’s the connection! My quilt won’t look like this one, but it will be similar, and I will remember Tomi with each stitch.

I love it when a plan comes together!