Monday, January 02, 2012

The Depression Quilt

My to-do list was rather long today, but I got most things done -- and the day isn't over so there's still hope :-)!  It's my house cleaning day and laundry day.  I try to get everything done in one day so I can play the rest of the week!

A couple of weeks before Christmas I turned a corner and got hit right in the face with a bout of depression.  Depression is a really ugly thing -- lots of dark thoughts that you don't have any control over; a feeling of overwhelming sadness; a feeling of what's the point anyway.  I knew what it was immediately, so I decided to try to work my way out of it -- it started on a Thursday.  I was working on an old project that I consider ugly at the time and really tedious.  So, I pulled out the Winter issue of Primitive Quilts magazine, set aside the ugly quilt and cut and started piecing the Country Christmas quilt in the magazine.  I even went to my favorite quilt shop and bought some border fabric for it.  In a matter of a couple of days, I finished the quilt, and more importantly, worked myself right out of the bout of depression.  I'm not saying this is what you should do if it happens to you -- clinical depression really needs to be treated by a doctor and if it had lasted any longer, I would have made an appointment. 
This quilt is actually quilted and bound and I'm considering calling it the Depression Quilt, but maybe not!  I really love it -- it's only 48" x 48", but that's a good size for throwing on the couch or on the kitchen table!  The picture was taken after piecing, but before I quilted it.
I went back to the ugly quilt and finished it afterwards.  It was a mystery quilt I didn't want to do to begin with, but Kris cut half the pieces for me last summer and by the time I pieced them into blocks and made another large amount of blocks for it, I figured I had too much time invested in it not to finish it!  You may or may not see a picture of it sometime -- the top is done but not quilted.

Gratitudes:
I'm thankful for my stash and for the Primitive quilts magazines -- love all their patterns.  It was nice to be able to pull fabrics from the stash on a moment's notice and start piecing.
And, I'm grateful that my one and only bout of depression only lasted a few days.

1 comment :

Melody said...

I'm glad that you were able to pull out of it so quickly. That feeling is not a good one to have. {{hug}}

I love your new quilt! Very cute :)