STRAINED BUT NOT DRAINED - 19" X 20" The story of my life - always a little strain to get things done, but not too much strain to completely drain me of my energy. When I truly learn how to achieve that balance, I'll let you know. I made this piece over the course of a weekend. I had committed to an exhibit of Colander Quilts, but of course the deadline was swooping down on me.

I packed my kids into the van - they were 7 & 10 at the time. My husband was conveniently out of town. We drove to some friend's houses and asked to borrow their colanders. After feeding the kids some dinner and putting them to bed, I got out my trusty Nikon and photographed the cooperative colanders. Saturday morning I got the photos developed and drove to the copy shop. I paid them to transfer my photos onto special transfer paper and then heat press them onto the cotton fabric I had grabbed on the way out the door. Can you tell I was feeling a little rushed by this point? On the way home from the copy shop I decided that all the fabrics I would use in this quilt would have "holes" in them, like the holes in the colanders. Another play on the sieve idea. Anyway, I pieced and quilted this quilt over the rest of the weekend and mailed it off on Monday to meet the deadline. It traveled for 2 years before I got to see it again. I had a great time making this quilt and really like it - you might think it would have taught me not to procrastinate so well, but I'm a slow learner on some things I guess...