A labor of love ...

It all started when my buddy and Reiki Master, Paul, attuned me to Reiki Level III. Typically, you pay for the attunements just as you would with any other such thing. Service = Payment. But at the time, quite honestly, I didn't have the money, just a strong desire to move to Level III. I think I've already established the fact I'm a fan of good, ol' fashioned horse tradin'. Fortunately for me, Paul isn't apposed to horse tradin'.

I tossed a few ideas around in my head. At first I couldn't come up with what I felt would be a fair trade. What, after all, are my skills?

I can cook. All well a good but really, a meal is a one time thing. Even a nice batch of Pico de Gallo only lasts so long. Then you've got nothing but a handful of empty jars to wash.

I can paint. Been there, done that. I painted his portrait for Level II. Besides, Paul is a better artist than I am so what could I possibly paint that he couldn't paint for himself, and do a much nicer version of?

I can sew. Hmmm. Yeah. I could make a quilt for Paul! I proposed the idea and he accepted.

Quilts are something meant to last, meant to comfort, a gift of love, made with hands and heart. Right away I thought of a traditional Scrap Quilt, like your Grandma and Great Grandma would have made. All kinds of fabrics from all kinds of things pieced together into an age old design like Log Cabin (my personal fav!) , Nine Patch or Pinwheels. I spent several weeks searching through my quilt books, my quilt magazines and online, looking for "just the right pattern", and coming up zero.

Then another thought hit me. Although Scrap Quilts are indeed, in my humble opinion, the absolute best quilts in the world. My own Grandma used to make that kind. Thing is, I didn't have the right kind of fabrics ... those being ... Paul's favorite shirt from the sixth grade; a piece of his mother's apron from when he was in high school; a scrap of his dad's Sunday Best shirt, etc. to add to other fabrics I could purchase. I couldn't really make it personalized in that way, and having concluded a quilt was the only thing to do for the trade, I had to figure out another way to personalize it.

As my quirky brain often does when faced with a art/craft dilemma, it stalled and then went into 'mull it over' mode. Somehow, way back in that little niggly intuitive section of my brain, I knew just any ol' quilt pattern wouldn't do. I realized that was why I was having trouble even deciding on the 'right' pattern. It needed to be something special, something non-traditional, original, custom made specifically for Paul. It needed to be an "art" quilt. And it needed to represent what I see in Paul, relating the wonderful aspects of the person he is to me.

Mulling it over.

Mulling it over.

Mulling it over.

I decided to sit down and make a list. Lists are good. I love lists. Post-It-Notes are a fabulous invention and I have stacks of 'em, in lovely colors ..... oh, I digress.

One thing that came to mind was Paul inclination for abstract art. Odd thing about this ... Paul loves abstract art yet doesn't himself create abstract art. If he did, I'm sure it would be so beautiful it would bring tears to your eyes. (Hint hint, Paul, if you're reading this.) I see this hesitation to create abstract art as a part of himself that Paul has yet to "free" and embrace. Some subconscious level of control he still clings to. I won't get lost in all the psycho-babble about that statement. Moving on.

Of course, there is the Reiki thing. Paul is my Reiki Master/Teacher, as previously stated and he has a very simplistic view/practice of Reiki. He tries always to apply the Reiki Principles to his life in an honest and humble way. It helps me to look at my own life in an entirely different way. So, somehow incorporating Reiki symbolism into the quilt seemed like a logical idea.

If you Google Reiki you will come up with Upteen-Gazillion-And-Three websites for almost as many different types of Reiki. I won't get up on a Soap Box about that, but suffice it to say, I don't believe they are really Reiki - they are just someone's way of putting what they hope to be a New! Improved! Mine Is Better Than Yours! New Agey twist on Reiki and therefore attempt to make it more "special" and thus more profitable. Through Paul, my own initiation into, and understanding of, Reiki is bare bones, to the point, simple. I venture to say it is what Reiki, and the practice of Reiki, is really supposed to be.

Paul has an Asian aestheticism to himself and his life. Streamlined, simple, practical and yet ever mindful of the beauty of things, of life and the world around him. He can find perfection in a broken sea shell or in one minute of the warmth of sunshine on his face. His approach to nearly everything is this way. In considering this, the quilt needed to be simple, understated as in being practical yet be visually pleasing.

Color was extremely important, too. Though Paul is an artist and is attracted to colors running the gamut from black to white, the quilt's colors needed to reflect the nature of the person I know Paul to be. Unequivocally and unquestionably, the first color was Blue. If you want to hear a grown man sigh and goo like a girl with a sparkly new piece of jewelry just show Paul something in vivid Turquoise or a deep Prussian Blue. Hand him a nice piece of Lapis Lazuli to hold and fondle and you'll see he eyes almost glaze over in bliss. Yeah, Paul likes blue.

But lots of blue, especially bright or intense blues seemed wrong somehow for the quilt. I felt it needed to be accented, not dominated, with blue While thinking about this I remembered how Paul loved the Whole-Cloth-Quilts sometimes displayed at the Art Council gallery during the local Fall Festival. Whole-Cloth-Quilts are stunning pieces of work. Generally done with one/two large piece(s) of cotton, linen or muslin fabric in white, ecru or solid color. The actual quilted design is the feature of the piece. Considering this, I decided on the colors of unbleached muslin, soft shades of tan/brown, shades of gray and a touch of moss green. I also wanted to do a part of it in Whole-Cloth style. Quilting the Healing Hand symbol seemed appropriate.

When looking at different Asian art, much of it is bordered by, or incorporates, black. I knew black was the "punch" color for the quilt. I studied abstract art and found works by a few artists that were somewhat in the Cubist style of Picasso and Braque. Paul likes squares and rectangles ... which, of course, is great when making a quilt. I love to quilt, but I'm not proficient with piecing circles and triangles. Paul's a natural/organic-y kinda' guy, so it all needed to be cotton, linen or muslin. The batting also had to be traditional cotton. Now, after "mulling it over", I had a basic game plan and colors.

I found 100% cotton batting at Asheville Cotton Co. But rifling through my fabric stash I realized I didn't have very much of the types and colors I wanted. Thus began the process of collecting fabric. I made trips to different fabric stores here and in neighboring towns. I searched online. I even shopped at thrift stores for shirts and things I could scavenge the material from.

After collecting the fabrics I tried several times to work the design of the quilt out on paper. I never could get it to come out in a way I was satisfied with. For reasons I can't even begin to explain, I felt like it just had to come together much the same way it works when I'm actually painting an abstract or a collage. I began with one large piece of muslin as the focal point. This was the piece I designated for the Healing Hand symbol. I started cutting fabric in a variety of squares and rectangles and laying them out on the floor of my studio, switching pieces around, adding smaller ones, larger ones, and visually working out the structure and balance of the overall design. It was a lot like trying to put together a puzzle without the picture on the box to go by.

I had to take my time in cutting all this fabric up. The old carpenter's rule of thumb, "measure twice, cut once" was my mantra. Somewhere along the way the idea came to me to incorporate the Reiki kanji symbols. After all, I was going with an Asianish theme + Reiki, so it seemed to fit. Unfortunately, I didn't have any fabric with these symbols already printed on it and certainly wasn't very likely to find any.

Skill = Painting. It was supposed to be an "art" quilt, so why not?

I cut out five rectangles of the plain muslin, one for each symbol, wet them and laid them out flat on plastic bags on the kitchen counter. I used acrylic paint and blended patches of tan, blue and a hint of sage green on them as if I were doing watercolor washes on paper. After they were dry I used black acrylic to paint the kanji symbols. I left them to dry completely for a couple of days. To set the paint into the fabric I put each one between pieces of cotton and pressed them with medium heat and the steam setting on my iron. To be sure they wouldn't totally screw up I tossed them in the washer, gave them a nice hot whirl in the dryer, then ironed them one more time. Worked like a charm. I now had my Reiki symbols.

Time to sew. Because I had squares and rectangles to work with I was able to construct it in sections. These sections were connected, and in places accented - such as "framing the Healing Hand piece, by black strips. Sometimes after sewing a section I would decide I didn't like how it worked and would have to either rip a seam and replace a piece, cut out a piece or add a piece. Again, I still had to be careful not waste the fabric I had collected.

Top completed, I added the layer of batting and the backing material, then pinned it all together. Now it was time to quilt. I started with the Healing Hand symbol. I had used a light tan watercolor pencil to draw the hand, spiral and radiating waves onto the muslin before I pieced everything together.

Oh yes, I'm all about getting the top pieced on my sewing machine. It's a lot faster, and given the time hand quilting takes, a big plus in the whole process of quilt making. Now, I certainly have appreciation for machine quilting. I've seen some that were really stunning, with impressive and intricate designs. But I love the look, and tradition, of hand quilting. And I do lap-quilting - meaning it's all piled in my lap while I sit on the floor or on the sofa. I don't have a quilting frame, nor do I have room for one. Armed with my tiny quilting needles all pre-threaded and ready to go, I started. I stitched. And I stitched. And stitched some more.

Two stitches at a time 'cause size 11 quilting needles are only about 1" long.

I'm also a thimble-less quilter/sewer. I have never been able to use a thimble for more than a few stitches when sewing anything. They just get in my way. I can't "feel" what I'm doing and it drives me nuts. Sadly, the tips of my fingers are repeatedly pricked and poked by the point of the needle and after extended periods of sewing/quilting they look like hamburger. And yeah, it feels worse than it looks. Touching anything is, in a word, painful. I can only endure it for so long before I have to give the ol' fingers a breather and let them heal up awhile. Then, I jump back up on the horse and do it some more. Crazy, but the result is worth the effort.

And, I believe Paul is worth the effort. I respect him. I admire him. I treasure him.

He is my friend.

So without further adieu, here is the end result of a two year process ...