Progress on a quilt! Trust me, this is momentous news lately. Hubby has been out of town a lot, I've had some writing deadlines, and Quilt Canada is now a month away. Things are busy! But we had a low key weekend and I squeezed in some sewing, during naptime of course.

This is the start of what is currently being referred to as my Slaveship Quilt. I promise I will get a better name in time. These strips have come from this pile of indigo fabrics. Oh, I heart these indigo fabrics. These are designs that are well over a century old, but some of them are so bold and modern today. And that indigo is melting my heart.

It wasn't until I started cutting into them that I realized these were real Da Gama fabrics, imported from South Africa. Suddenly the fabric had more weight, and the project took on even more symbolism for me.

Yes folks, I would say that I am making my first art quilt. With every step, from inspiration to design to sewing I feel the importance of each decision. There is a reason to everything I'm doing. So not only do I intend to have something beautiful simply to look at, I hope it is something meaningful and symbolic too.

(My nature is to suddenly retreat into something self-deprecating right now, but this project doesn't deserve that.)

This is a multi-step design and who knows whether I'll finish it this week or next year, but I hope you will enjoy the process as much as I will.