When I read this week’s Project Quilting prompt, 16.5 follow your arrow, the first thing that came to my mind was creating a quilt to reflect my internal state of distress. I doodled up a scrappy American flag in distress (upside down), pieced using only arrows pointing downwards, but after truthfully evaluating my low volume fabrics just a few days before for the low volume charity block drive, I knew that I didn’t have the stash to pull off that idea. I then settled on the idea of creating a compass quilt, but with purposeful juxtaposition incorporated into the quilt.
Curse This Evil Dumpster Fire
At first glance, this is a sweet ~42″ square baby quilt. The center of the quilt is simple enough – arrows flowing out from the center pointing in cardinal directions. I chose to work with the color wheel and a rainbow of colors for several reasons. But fundamentally, I believe communities are better with more diversity and inclusion.
Curse This Evil Dumpster Fire
When you zoom out to examine the composition as a whole, I hope you notice that the arrows turn around. Everything feels turned upside down and inside out right now. Right is wrong and wrong is right. I know that many of us are feeling pushed on by those loud external factors, and I hope that like me, you are doing everything you can to protect and strengthen yourself. Now, more than ever, I think it’s crucial we hold on to our moral compass.
Curse This Evil Dumpster Fire
My husband was texting with a good friend on Tuesday evening who ended up inadvertently naming this quilt for me. He used to work for NASA and opted to take the “fork in the road” and leave his 25+ years of civil service. So many of our friends and family are worried about whether or not they are going to have a job and how they will find another one. Or how they will afford health insurance. Or protect their children, or protect themselves.
Once again, a spiral felt like the only right choice for quilting. From feeling like my country is circling the drain to representing how easy it is to fall into mental doom loop cycles, it says a lot about this moment in time.
Curse This Evil Dumpster Fire
Wednesday was a tough day for me. I was having a hard time processing all the things my friends and family had been sharing with me, and my husband and I suffered a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of life: our health insurance was apparently cancelled by his employer on accident and we only found out when we went to check out after a routine dental cleaning ($$$). By Friday, everything was corrected for us. But how can I best help my friends, family, community, and country?
I don’t have any answers, but I have a heart full of love, compassion, and empathy. Those are some of my superpowers. I’m grateful to be in community with people who have superpowers that are different than mine. And I am going to keep doing things, like quilting, to renew and reorient myself to true north.
Linking up with Project Quilting 16.5, Follow Your Arrow.
Same. The distress I feel for our country and our fellow citizens is enormous. How am I coping? Inviting friends over to our home where we can block out the horrible news for an evening. I’m also doing more to support local food banks.
Love the design Yvonne! Everything feels upside down and inside out right now for a lot of people.
Thank you for sharing not only this thoughtful and thought-provoking quilt, but your accompanying post, which brings closer to home the consequences of the callous, chaotic actions that are being hurled from the Administration on a daily basis. Maybe it was easy for some people to dismiss bad outcomes for faceless “bureaucrats”, but hearing about the effects on public servants in the voices of people they admire and trust may raise some questions which are long overdue, and generate conversations which need to take place.
<3 thanks for this post. I've been doing a lot of functioning sewing — mending, making a duvet cover — which is beautiful and therapeutic but a very different project than making a quilt to respond to the Current State of Things. So I'm grateful to see what you're doing over there and be inspired by it.
I'm working on a cushion cover called "Brown is Beautiful" in response to the bizarre backlash against Pantone's color of the year. It's a leader-ender project though, so might take a while — stay tuned!
Other things I've been doing (in case it gives anyone ideas when you're feeling blocked!): providing masks to protect against the ongoing covid pandy as well as new threats like avian flu and measles; providing pcr-level covid tests to any neighbors who want to use my machine; planting a garden to hopefully share harvest with neighbors and maybe have more opportunities to chat with neighbors. It's a politically mixed neighborhood, and I think that the dwindling number of people who still support the president are thinking of trans people like me, and people of color like my partner, as abstract threats, rather than friendly neighbors with extra veggies to give away.
Love the quilt! (Any chance you’ll make it into a pattern?) Love your conversation regarding it even more. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and your creativity at this very difficult time. It helps to share and care for each other. And to know we are not alone.
Awesome stuff!
Your post soothed my savage soul that is also in anguish. Your quilt is beautifully symbolic of the current struggle. Thank you for sharing your experience and your talent.
Truth Telling. Thanks for sharing and creating!
This is a perfect post.
From the first shot of that beautiful quilt, to the naming of it, to your solemn expression in the close, I was with you all the way. If only our current dumpster fire could resolve into something as beautiful as this, I would be happy. I have started following Timothy Synder, who has been able to put into words some of the things I feel (i.e. Oval Office Debacle), so that has helped. Realizing that I can take my rage and channel it like you have into quilting, has also been helpful.
Like you, I’m concerned about people who took the fork, or were pushed out, or USAID destroyed (with all its resultant consequences) — there is so much, so much right now to process. Thanks for articulating through words, and also through cloth and color, how we are all feeling right now. Hang in there!
Yvonne, you have a way with words that speak to my heart and soul! I do feel like we are in a dumpster fire and all of humanity is suffering. We need to stand up for what is right and what we believe in. I am in anguish standing by to watch those who agree with the corruption, the dishonesty, and biases. Blessings to you!
Beautiful quilt! Your blog title pretty much captures my current feelings on how things are going. I’m trying to be appreciative of the good things in life to battle back on the nasty stuff going on. It’s nice to see you’ve had time to sew even with the new job. Sorry for the worry on the insurance front, that’s a heart stopping moment. We are all going to have to hang together and support each other. My sewing room is my favorite place these days.
Things are truly chaotic right now and it is hard to watch things happen that are so different than my personal values. But quilting, my immediate family and friends bring me the joy and support I need. Hugs to you my friend.
So true. I sympathize with all you’re going through right now, and everyone else affected through no fault of their own. I was moved by the quilt at QuiltCon with the quote from Elijah Cummings. The gist of the message was “Do something” and I’m still trying to figure out what I can do.
Well said Yvonne. Also great interpretation of what we are all feeling these days.
Like others, I struggle to know what I can do to make a difference-it is I overwhelming and I feel powerless.
We each need to find that1 thing to standup for… trouble is there are so many.
Thank you for the beautiful quilt and your expression of what so many of us feel.
love all of it, and it’s how I feel too. Never safe. My husband flew with Noah during grad school for engineering. He tried to get on with Nasa but they weren’t hiring at that time even though his scholarship was paid by them. I’m despondent at the state of affairs in this new regime. so much loss, for so many citizens. I hope democracy survives and we can one day move forward again. Love your quilt and your thoughts behind it. LeeAnna
It is hard to feel good about anything our country is doing right now. Your PQ piece is perfect. I love the rainbow arrows/colors and the circular quilting. Its a beautiful quilt, even though its inspiration is less than beautiful!
Thank you for sharing your concerns about our country. It has certainly been a challenging times and this moral compass is such a powerful metaphor for what our democracy woefully needs.
I love how you incorporate really important issues and complex emotions into your quilting. This is another amazing work of art!
Lots of good stuff shown in the design and in your words. It truly is a distressing, to say the least, tumultuous time.
Your comments are so timely. Although I don’t know anyone affected by the options offered now, I am concerned about the effects of taking a buyout. My insurance increased $23 a month which is a lot but I am blessed that I have insurance. I’m going to be looking for another PT job. My prayers are with all of us in America plus all those overseas without our aid now. Your quilt is so timely.
I really appreciate this entire post! Both your words and your quilt (and its process) speak so eloquently to my own feelings this week/month/year. I, too, struggle with keeping my equilibrium while staying informed and doing what I can to support others in more peril than I. It’s a struggle, but I agree: we have to stay strong and be there for one another. Thanks for sharing this important and timely message.
Don’t you love that you can put all your emotions, thoughts and feelings into the process of creating the quilt, and something beautiful comes of it? I just love how you did this! and thank goodness your health insurance is all figured out. that can be stressful.
Yvonne: You moved me to tears with this profoundly relevant creation and the story it tells. I’ve always known that you are special from the first time I read your posts. ❣️
Fully can relate to the feelings of distress. Appreciated diversity and inclusion being part of what you expressed in this piece. Bummer about your insurance!!!! but sure glad it got worked out quickly.
Thank you for sharing your emotions and your real life stuff. It’s hard to find any balance these days, but I know that my anger only hurts me. Best outlets for me have been gardening, walking, and quilting to help find my way back to a place of wholeness.
It’s a beautiful quilt made from not-beautiful circumstances. I appreciated all the thoughtfulness that went into each element of the design.