My Grateful Melody Quilt Top

A few stitches here, and a block or two there…and 43 blocks have become 120.  My Grateful Melody quilt top is complete!  This project was wonderful:  a design and skill challenge, combined with personal memories in a quilt.

The Naive Melody sew along, hosted by Lucy Engels , is complete.  I’m happy to have finished my quilt top on schedule – something I often struggle to do.

This project evolved as the weeks passed.  I started with a limited color palette, but added more as the mood struck and I used what I’d already cut.  Eventually I found myself with more than 15 fabrics as background, and even more variety in applique pieces.  Such fun!

I added two shapes of my own to these blocks:  a tear drop, and a house.  I needed them there, for many reasons.  The obvious reasons are common to most of us over the past 11 months, but there were also deeply personal reasons for me and my family.  Isn’t it interesting how closely gratitude often sits to sadness and loss, and how tears often mingle with joy?

My grateful melody quilt top tells the story of some treasured blessings.  It also holds some sadness I struggle to explain.  How grateful I am to have felt these feelings – to be alive and feeling enough to care so deeply!  In all, it’s a happy quilt.  Happy in color, in design and in making.  I cannot imagine ever being done exploring these possibilities!

This project tempts me to choose and begin my own 100 day project and see where it leads.  That is one creative challenge I’ve never done.

For now, I’ve got commitments and unfinished projects enough to keep me busy for months!  Additionally, since this is my second quilt top finished in 2021, I’d better get quilting!