A Challenging Evening

Interconnectedness is one of the recurring themes in my quilts and on a night when the election returns are slowly coming in, I am acutely aware of how connected we all are and how important good government is to us all, a government that, among many important responsibilities, somehow finds a way to keep the playing field level so everybody has a chance in the game, one that makes decisions not based on wishful thinking but on reasoned discourse and independent research, one that responds to the needs of all its citizens, not the desires of the people or the corporations with the most money.  Every year I keep voting, sometimes, as I did this year, even canvassing for a candidate, and hoping my one voice will make a difference in moving government in the right direction. But watching the election returns is getting too stressful right now and I'm ready for a break.

It's been three months since our local challenge group had met and last week another quilt was due. This one had be in monochrome of a color that began with the same letter as our first names.  I had a much easier time of it than some of the other members, like Kate, because magenta, maroon, melon, mint, mahogany, and many more were possibilities for me, but in the end I decided on mulberry. And here is Terrain in all my hand-dyed shades and tints of mulberry:

This quilt is 16" x 15" and the limited color palette suggests interconnectedness without the more obvious knotwork of some of my other quilts, but I did add that woven perle cotton on the lightest patch to make the idea a little less subtly. I had fun with the hand stitching on this piece and fell in love with that twisted chain stitch. I also added some machine quilting for even more variety in texture.

And this one will be hanging in the West End Gallery this weekend!

Now I suppose I must check on how the electoral college is doing. And, if you are still with me, thanks for the company.