I had planned on using today’s post to give some insight into my weekend of sewing, but the truth is, all I did (sewing-wise) this weekend was finish quilting my AG Mini and bind it off.  And then snip all the threads.  It was a thrilling weekend.

I’m not going to show off pictures because, well, I want my partner to be surprised and maybe she’s reading this.  But, one of the main prints I used was Sun Print Text.  I used one text print for the main part of the mini, and then bound it off in a contrasting text print.  And I want to talk a little bit about it.  Alison Glass, if you’re reading this, your text print sat down in my soul and won’t leave.  Thank you ❤

When Alison Glass released her Sun Print line, she did a blog post about the designs, and she said this about the text:

“There is also a text print, called Text, very original, I know!  Sometimes it’s just good to go with the obvious, right?  It’s a simple design, truly meant more than anything to create texture.  The nine colors are usable with tons of projects!  I wrote the words, and while they mean something to me, the meaning is not the main thing, it’s the feel of the design and how it is used that is the focus.

Well, Alison, I would love to know the meaning to you.  Because every single time I use this print, I find another set of words that hits me directly in the feels and refuses to be ignored. (You can read the rest of that blog post here.)

The first time I ever used the text was in a baby quilt.  I had gotten the colors from the mom, and I was pulling fabrics and trying to come up with a cohesive design that would match the feel of their nursery.  Since I was still fairly new to quilting at the time, I didn’t have much of a fabric stash and was just looking at swatches online.  I stumbled across Text, and the first words I read were “your birth it is redemption” and “pointless rejection of him of beauty for you and a real companion.”  I sent it off to the mom with my feelings about the print, and she said she was a little overwhelmed by the feelings.  That was enough, it was in the quilt.

I didn’t know until much, much later how true those words rang for her.  I didn’t know that she had struggled with so much until she found out that she was pregnant.  I didn’t know that finding out that she was pregnant really was a second chance for her.  She’s embraced motherhood in a way that I don’t think I’ve ever been honored to witness before.  I am so very proud of her drive to be a wonderful mom, to give her little one a better life.

Binding off this mini for my partner, it was like the fabric demanded that I think of this story.  That I remember why I fell in love with this fabric in the first place.  And then, it demanded that I connect with it again.

Don’t worry, I’m not pregnant, and I’m not struggling with too terribly much.  This time, it wasn’t a message of redemption.  It was a message of growth.  Growth in my career, growth in my relationship, growth in my sewing.   And a message of remembrance of my grandmother.

Jump as off a diving board

we serve simplify celebrate

What is there wouldn’t keep from being happy

Holding our breath and moving forward

There was filling the empty with empty

In a pond of tragedy

With you and me we belong

Live in the now, in integrity and freedom, so hard, so good

Then two, who we wouldn’t it seemed so improbable, then there you were

I’m still feeling the feels over this one.  Today, M and I have been together for 3.5 years.  It’s still kind of baffling to me.  Our story is a weird one, and something for another post, but it’s ours.  And I wouldn’t change any of it for the world.  Last year we had this absolutely horrible fight, it went on for weeks.  I’ll never forget sitting on the couch as we neared the end of it, being completely exhausted, every fiber of my being telling me that what I was about to say was going to destroy me if he agreed, and saying “maybe this is the end.”  We looked down that concept together, talked about what it would mean, and decided that neither of us could live with it.  And then we set about working to repair the damage that we had caused through that fight.  It’s still not completely fixed, almost a year later, but we’re getting there.  We DO belong.  Sometimes our relationship feels improbable, even impossible, but there he is and there we are, and I can’t imagine being anywhere else.

To the other side, to the remembrance.  My grandmother passed away on March 10, 2015.  At the end of March 2014, she was diagnosed with Stage IV Leukemia and given 3-6 months to live.  When we found out, I booked a flight to CA and made a quilt for her, and took it out to her in early June.  The old woman lived for almost a year after that diagnosis.  My aunt and uncle assure me that she didn’t feel too much pain for the last 9 months of her life.  All of this is another post, and we’ll get there eventually.  For now, my mother is in CA to visit her parents, and I’ve asked her to see if she can pick up that quilt from my aunt and uncle and bring it home to me.  Without getting into major specifics, let’s just leave it at the fact that those sadder ones are attached to this story.

I’m sorry that I don’t have pictures for you guys today – like I said, I didn’t do a whole lot this weekend!  I should have a bunch for Wednesday though!