The End of a Terrible Year: Quilting My Way Out of Darkness

Normally, I am a very positive person, always ready for something new to do or see or learn or experience.

Those qualities sustained me this past year.

Just so you know, I became very independent at an early age, as my childhood was devoid of unconditional maternal love. Fortunately, my father and paternal grandmother filled the void, as did two maternal figures, one my high school history teacher and the other my boss on the county bookmobile.

Last May, after a routine screening test, I learned I had breast cancer. Again. My first bout occurred in 2007. This time, the tumor – also small, but still … – required two biopsies, one so painful I almost fainted. I certainly screamed. Thoughts of medieval torture and thumbscrews crossed my mind as I staggered out of the procedure room.

The surgery “went well,” they said. The next day, however, my heart decided to prove them wrong. A trip to the ER and a diagnosis of cardiac arrhythmias and AFib led to a night and a day in the hospital. Not fun, though some drugs placated my outraged heart. Then came radiation, this time just three weeks, but with redness and burns I didn’t experience the first time around.

But that’s enough weeping and gnashing of teeth. Boo hoo, time to move on. And I did.

I turned to quilting once again. Something tangible. Something that symbolized escape from my personal situation, as well as the constantly horrifying state of my country under the new administration.

While waiting several weeks for surgery, I bought a Janome sewing machine and returned to quilting, something I once did to get through severe Wyoming winters after my son’s birth. At the time, there was only one book available on quilting. Beth Gutcheson’s The Perfect Patchwork Primer. That and The Quilter’s Newsletter taught me a lot.

Now, of course, the landscape of quilting seems unending. So much fabulous fabric to choose from. So many new techniques. So many sewing machines, some with computers that take the art of quilting to a whole new level.

Some of the quilts I’ve finished: