I really struggled with this one. I found lots of ideas I liked and I had jotted down, but I didn't find anything that super stood out to me, or super inspired me. I was struggling with what direction to go with it. Then, as I was looking at a number of tessellation designs online, and thinking about whether picking certain colours would give me more inspiration, I was kind of commenting to myself that lots of the designs were in black and white. That phrase just sat with me. It spoke to the heartbreak I had been feeling for what is happening in the world. It spoke to the heartbreak I had been feeling listening to stories from complete strangers, from acquaintances, and from friends. But it spoke to something more. It spoke to the hope I felt in seeing people start to come together. And it spoke to my desire for that hope to continue.
My next step was to google the shaka hand symbol and whether there was any meaning I didn't want to have as part of my quilt. (How did people design quilts before the internet?) What I found really solidified for me that this was the design I wanted to go with. It was an article entitled "A Short History of the Shaka" by Megan Denny which stated:
The shaka is a symbol of the “Aloha spirit,” which is the coordination of the mind and spirit to think and exude good feelings to others...The simple gesture symbolizes a reverence, solidarity, compassion and friendship. It is a sign of respect and mutual understanding for the recipient.
I knew that this was the design I wanted to do. I can't even come close to understanding what other are feeling right now, or what they have gone through, are going through, and unfortunately, will go through. And I know that me making a small quilt in the isolation of my house doesn't fix anything or make anything better. And I was really worried about whether I would make some wrong design choice that would be interpreted the wrong way or be offensive to someone. But from everything I've been watching and reading made me feel like doing something (even if it's wrong and I grow from that) is better than ignoring the problem or not doing anything at all. Maybe it will make someone think. Or maybe it will start a conversation.
That was a lot of (heavy) writing to get to a quilt with a 30" perimetre, but I wanted to make sure I documented my thoughts and feelings on this one.
A lot of this one relied on the quilting (as you can see here from the top without the quilting on it). I was a little worried, because I don't have a whole lot of machine quilting experience, and it's been a while since I've done any free motion quilting. But I set up a test run in the morning, and it went well, so I dove right in.
As I was thinking about the quilt top and what I wanted to do with it, I really wanted the top to speak for itself and I just couldn't picture a binding around it, so I decided to try my hand at facing. It was quite easy and came together really nicely to produce the exact look I wanted.
For her tessellation challenge, my friend wanted to do something that was based on piecing something that was a tessellation (and not rely on fusible webbing). She decided to go with a tumbling block base for her design. She pulled out great fabrics and colours, and did a great job of placement.
Once she had the base done, she machine appliqued triangles on to the design to add another dimension.
She trimmed it down and added a binding.
The simplicity of the quilting on the back is really great (and carries through the tessellation).
One more challenge completed.
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