Making Stripes

I work at Glorious Color, where we sell fabric packs that quilters use to recreate quilts designed by Kaffe Fassett and Liza Lucy.  At first, this was a funny proposition for me, since the notion of making something already made by someone else seems contradictory to...well, making something.  But as I really listen to and get to know our customers, my arrogance wanes. I understand now that they are simply immobilized to their cores by Choosing. And these kits are not fueling laziness...rather, they provide a way to fulfill that primal urge for handwork, even if it means skipping the step that is the most fun for me.
 
So I've taken on a fabric pack biggie: redesigning Haze Kilim, a lovely quilt made from handwoven stripes that are no longer available.  It has the effect of a kilim rug and the nubbiness of the woven cloth adds to that feeling. (You can google it, I don't know the rules about stealing photos and can't afford to go to prison since Himself refuses to walk the dogs in my absence.)

So here I've been, working the current and soon-to-be-available harvest of woven stripes into a new quilt. What holds my interest is the process. You start with about 25 different pieces of fabric, each consisting of its own little treasures of color:

 Then, you capture the colors you  want and cut the fabric into strips ranging from 1 to 3 inches.

Now comes the fun part.  You sew the strips back together to create brand new sheets of fabric. Eight different hues, two families of light and dark. Here are two of the lights:

You then zoom in and focus on various areas of each sheet, cutting triangles so that each becomes its  own color story (Liza's most excellent design term!).

I see that I've become more confident, free and joyful in this process since working with Jude. After all, what are we doing over there but making new cloth?  I love looking at each of my triangle babies...these hues are like strata of the Grand Canyon to me.

 I will let you know how long I can sustain joy in the face of the approximately 500 triangles ahead of me.