Last Quilt of 2025

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Beauty in Mishap

Usually, I try to finish up projects to start the new year with a fresh slate, but I have several things in the works right now. I find myself in the position of working against a self-imposed deadline! (That can be a joy drain for sure.) And while these "works in progress" (WIPs) get juggled with end of the year activities and holiday celebrations, one of the things put on the back burner is keeping up-to-date with social media. So, I'm putting a pause on all this activity, as the clock ticks off the last hours of 2025, to present my final finish of 2025: Beauty in Mishap.

This continues my improvisation with random scraps to create what I hope are interesting compositions. Lately, I'm really enjoying the theme of "contrast." Juxtaposing thin lines and large shapes, or open spaces with more populated areas of random forms and connecting lines, opens up opportunities to enhance the surface with quilting that reinforces the design.  

The bottom section of this quilt was the first stage in its evolution. As it came together, there seemed to be a definite direction to the composition. When the cut away cream shapes were added to the patterned fabric, it felt like these shapes were aligning themselves toward a focal point. To me, they took on the look of a shattered surface or shards of glass after an impact at the center. 

To balance this out I wanted to introduce a more delicate, organic form with the introduction of a new color. The idea here was to connect shapes as if splatters of liquid were dripping and running together or splashing into the sharper shapes.

The result is a piece that speaks of two gestures that can alter a surface. One is a forceful impact, the other is the natural impression left by the properties of liquid. Either one could be perceived as damage, or as adding character. It all depends on what happens after the moment of mishap. Do we choose to celebrate the damage by incorporating it into the object? hide it by altering the entire thing? or throw it all away?


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