Quarter Two Benchmark

I started this patch quilt during the first marking period. I have crotched the entire thing over the passed few months. I would have never been able to produce such work if it wasn’t for my great-great aunt Stella. This special woman taught me how to crochet when I was seven and I haven’t been able to put the habit down since. My piece that I am in the process of working on now is a giant patch quilt with many colors. I am crocheting rows of patches and then going to crochet them all together to form a quilt. This piece is going well because I am following my own pattern and crocheting my own way. When I say my own way I mean my style of crocheting with adjusting the tightness of the stitch and flow of the yarn. This piece isn’t quite finished yet because it takes a long time to construct such a large quilt and will need more time to finish.

            These pictures were taken in this way to symbolize my great-great aunt Stella and what she had taught me. In the background you see another quilt in which she made forty years ago. I put my work over top of her quilt to show how great her skills were and how it inspired me to make a quilt of my own. My great-great aunt was very skilled with crocheting and she passed this skill down to me with her teachings and patience.

            Crocheting to me is very soothing, and relaxing. My favorite thing about my work is that I can just sit down with my piece in my hands and watch television or have a conversation with someone. I can be creating a piece of artwork while relaxing and having time to myself. I see this as a major stress reliever in my life.  My favorite tool to my artwork is my needle. With my needle I can create just about anything I put my mind too. My needle is my gateway to my finished product.

            Finishing my product is the best part for me. My quilt isn’t finished yet but I can feel that point coming soon. The process of completion is satisfying, but not as satisfying as seeing my finished product lay out, nice and pretty. Then I can reflect on this work and think about how much hard work I had put into this piece. I look now at my rows and rows of finished patches and I think about all of the hours I had put into making these squares with neat and tight stitching. That brings me to think about my hands. My hands really wove all of this yarn into something big and useful without giving it much thought. My hands are my main tools and with them I created this giant patch quilt. 

            My favorite color in this quilt is the dark green. It is very appealing to my eye and engages the sense. The color has good qualities such as blending in with all of the other colors I used. It engages my senses and gives me a sense of warmth because it is a gentle color and it is on a quilt, which is warm. If I were to crotchet this entire quilt all over again, I would have made sure all of the yarn was of the same thickness or gauge. Some of the patches are thinner than others, which are fine, but in order to maybe look better, the same constancy of yarn should be used. I would have kept the tightness of the stitches the same because they are very well held together and will probably never rip apart. That is what makes a quality quilt!