I am sitting here, looking at a small tumbleweed of thread on the table, all the colors I have used in the applique process of Betty's quilt jumbled together. Each time I finished a petal or leaf, I pulled the short piece of thread from the needle and rolled it into the mix. I will not miss trying to thread that needle -- the applique part of the quilt is finished -- so I have a little respite until it's time to put up the quilting frame and tackle that part.
Enhancing the flowers with embroidery is the second phase. Now I have to sort through the packet of embroidery thread to find the ones that coordinate with the cloth flowers.
A chart came with the quilt kit Betty bought so long ago, but it describes the company brand on the instruction chart, not the DMC floss in the bag, so I will spread the quilt out and start to place the skeins on top. They spill out, rich and soft beneath my fingertips, the promise of beauty about to happen, all the colors of a garden in springtime bloom, shades of green, pale amber and deeper yellow, dark rose like a flower's shadow caught in moonlight, purple as regal as a royal robe.
I am keeping a paper fortune that came from the Dragon Buffet cookie I ate the other day: "It matters not what road we take, but rather what we become on the journey." it is tucked into the cigar box with the spools of thread.
But I take its words with me. What have I become so far? It is something to contemplate as I sort colors. Taking a Buddhist sort of view, I can truly say you live in the moment while you're stitching, carefully looking only 1/8th inch ahead. And from a Christian standpoint, there's always the Bible verse that tells us to "fret not thyself about tomorrow."
So I will take it again, one stitch, one color at a time, in this new beginning.
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