“Q” is for Quilting

The following is a work of fiction. Sort-of.

The quilter riffled through the endless boxes of swatches, searching for the perfect pieces that would enable the quilter to make the most beautiful quilt ever made. So many colors, so many shades, so many patterns. Which shape for each color? The greens, the browns, the blues, reds and yellows, stripes, polka dots and flowers, with triangles, squares, diamonds and rectangles. So many choices to be made. The long process involved placing each swatch next to another, switching them around until each color fit in softly with the next.

Once the colors had been chosen – ruby-red, grass green, sunny yellows, dark, velvety blues and rich browns – and the shapes for each color decided, the quilter took took the scissors in hand and carefully cut around the templates, making sure the number of pieces matched the required amount. Hundreds of colors, thousands of pieces, each piece, each color essential to the whole, without which the quilt would be incomplete.

In and out, in and out, the quilter moved the needle with an even rhythm as the quilt came together with invisible stitches. Cutting the last thread, the quilter breathed a deep sigh, stood up and shook out the wrinkles and watched as his masterpiece spread to its full length. He stood and stretched out his tired arms and pronounced “It is good.”