Soothing to the soul

As with any project, there are varying stages of building a quilt. When I first started years ago, my favorite step was creating the top--seeing the tiny bits and pieces come together to form something soft and smooth and colorful--the rest was just tedious necessity. 

A lot has changed in my life since I first began quilting and I have a newfound appreciation for the entire process. I'm still toiling away at the baby quilt I mentioned last week; the holiday weekend slowed me down. I was stalling at what is still my least favorite step, measuring and cutting the batting. After an especially stressful early afternoon, I found myself smoothing the quilt top over the batting sandwich, pinning everything into place and finally found the upside to this dreaded step. 

There is just something so soothing to the soul to run your hands over a baby-soft quilt top, ensuring there are no unnecessary bumps or folds and placing the safety pins ever so neatly in continuous rows. Feeling that decorative top become something so much more substantial as it finally begins to resemble the cozy blankie it will become with just a little more effort gives me such a sense of satisfaction. At the end of the day, my life might be filled with the chaos that having a 2 year old peanut in the house involves but at least I can say I made progress on one small piece of comfort.