Finding the Way Back from a Trip Around the World (Quilt)
So many quilters have made this quilt design and its relatives under the inspiration of travel and adventure. But, this quilt began as my personal trip around the world drew to a close.
The Reality of Being a World Traveler
Having lived in the small country of Malawi in Southern Africa for the better part of a decade with my husband, Matt, we knew our season was ending. We had done what we set out to do: to help start a church that was self-sufficient and led by nationals. The thing is, we also grew and changed in ways we didn’t set out to.
Youthful enthusiasm had faded into exhaustion. The skies fell silent under the weight of a global pandemic that ironically felt like a weighted blanket to our tired souls. But, then the sand shifted beneath us. Our first dog faded away from an unknown illness. My fragile womb seeped out the only baby it has ever known. The little puppy girl that filled my empty lap lay lifeless in a bundle after a routine surgery gone tragic. Then, as planned, we packed our bags to leave the place that held the deepest parts of me.
Heading "Home"
I intended this quilt to journey with me back “home” from the most epic trip around the world. Each square felt like a step, each round like a turning of the globe spinning us toward the hope of rest and healing after years of ache. I stitched in the lime green adirondack chairs on my front porch, soaking in the final rays of long sunshine, before letting them go to their next home. I stitched while I watched my pups play in the freedom that came from the safety of 8 foot brick walls and a wrought iron gate. And, then I stitched from the transience of hotel rooms and airports and tiny tray tables above seats with no leg room, landing in the strange, familiar land that had been “home” before we changed.
Not What I Expected...
Through cold days and colder nights, the stitches slowed, but, somehow the squares fell in place and the quilt top was finished, even though the home and hope and healing I yearned for slipped through my fingers. The flame of creativity dimmed to embers, suffocated by the greedy insistence of American living. The person I had become did not find home here.
So this quilt sat, patiently waiting for a glimmer of inspiration to carry it over the finish line. And, in moments of ache for the old joy of slow stitching, I managed to baste it. I pulled out spools of perle cotton. Threaded needles and donned my thimble. And, yet again, stitch after stitch brought crinkly definition to the previously neglected quilt top that yearned to reach its full potential. Eventually, the binding made its way to the edges and patiently waited for me to stitch it down.
What Healing Feels Like
And, a lot like the surprise of healing, one day it wasn’t a work in progress anymore. It was a quilt. Like waking up one day and the bruise is gone and no longer tender. It doesn’t draw attention to itself. The mystery of healing is in the absence–the absence of pain, the absence of ache, the absence of brokenness.
A finished quilt top waiting to be quilted has always been one of the saddest WIPs to me. It’s so close to reaching its full potential, and it doesn’t take nearly as much time or effort to finish it as it does to make it in the first place, but, how often do they languish in that state? Sometimes they go for generations like that, handed down year after year.
There was a time when the minute a quilt top was finished, I trimmed and basted it so it would become the quilt I set out to make. The days aren’t like that now, but this quilt is one in a series of quilt tops I’ve been dignifying with a finish. And, in the finishing, I feel the healing in my own soul silently doing its work. I take notice of the absences.
The emptying of my WIP basket. The dwindling of my batting tower. The naked spools of thread and perle cotton proudly declaring they have done their intertwining work to unite layers together. I notice the lack of frayed edges, now modestly covered with binding. And, I reflect on the absences I now embrace when once I shrank from losing anything more. The quietness that has replaced the buzzing anxiety. The full expansion of my chest in place of the constricting ache of grief. The lightness of hope instead of the leaden grip of depression.
Finding My Way
So even though this quilt isn’t the significant segue I had set out for it to be, it’s a testament to the beauty of taking stitches one at a time in every season. To the meaning that can come out of making your way back, even if the destination isn’t the home you left. There is a dignity in having taken the journey and seeing it through to the end. I think that’s why I put an “X” in the middle of this quilt. Like the destination on a treasure map or the indicator on a helipad indicating a place to finally land.
I made this quilt using a half yard bundle of delicious wovens designed by Guicy Guice for Andover fabrics. I didn’t intend to create a rainbow style quilt, but when I laid out the fabrics, they just begged to stay in the glorious, orderly array of colors. Thinking back on it now, it makes me think of a promise, much like it the rainbow does in the old Bible story. Maybe, somehow, without knowing it, these fabrics were a foreshadowing of this current season, promising that I would pass through the grief and loss and ache into hope and possibly even joy. That feels like the perfect full circle reflection on this quilt.
When I quilted it, I didn’t know whether I wanted the lines to radiate outward or inward, not knowing whether the quilt represented going off to travel the world or heading home after a long time away. In the end, I settled on both. The lines radiate outward on two opposite sides, and they radiate inward on the other two sides, a little like ripples. I love it.
The backing is one of the fabrics in the collection that I didn’t like cut up small, but that echoes the uses of squares on the front. It feels buttery soft like flannel even though it isn’t. I bound the whole quilt with the same white that I used in the center to bring it all together. The batting is a wool/polyester blend by Quilter’s Dream and it gives the perfect cozy definition to the hand quilting while remaining light and airy.
While this is the layout that ultimately became the Pilgrimage quilt in the Postcards quilt collection, I chose to stop after round 21 because of color placement, and my version finishes at a comfortable lap sized quilt of about 50” square. It's just right.
Make Your Own Trip Around the World Quilt
This quilt was inspired by Jodi's original trip around the world quilt long before we created the Postcard quilt collection, but I love that we had a similar thought when making them. Make sure you check out her low volume Pilgrimage version oriented like mine, here.
And, whether you need a mental trip around the world or you're looking to find your way back home, there's a quilt for you in the Postcard quilt collection. Grab what you need to start your journey today.
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