[My Ghanian Quilt] the Journey Continues...

This post has been in progress for awhile but with the chaos of our living space right now, it's been back-benched.  So here's the story of my quilt.  

Rewind: 3 years ago.  No kids, no home, no 'jobs' and we were doing missions work in Burkina Faso, West Africa.  During our time there we had a mini 'family vacay' down to Ghana.  Funny, things on the map always seem so close.  Case in point: "Ghana is right next to us let's visit the coast!"  Ha ha, 12 hours later (felt like the longest bus ride ever) we arrived in beautiful, colorful, loud Cape Coast.  I was forever admiring Ghanian cloth before this trip and everywhere we went during it.  If you've ever been to Africa you know that cloth is pretty significant.  You buy cloth then have a tailor make clothes specifically to fit you.  Burkina cloth was nice but Ghanian cloth, well, that 

was something else.

I have always wanted to make a quilt so decided to buy a bunch of different colours of Ghanian cloth to make it into said quilt as a memory of our trip.  However, shopping turned out to be quite the ordeal.  Sweaty, busy, loud, pushy, aggressive marketplaces.  Hot sun, indecision, walking walking walking. Not like shopping for cloth here.  

We had a lovely trip at the coast and finally did find all the cloth I wanted to (phew).

We then carted those cloths home through 5 European countries and stored them until we were back in Canada and bought a home for them to reside in.  

I didn't have a sewing machine which delayed my project and then I had this handsome project delayer:

Finally, when Silas was almost 8 months old I just threw caution to the wind and as I often do, dove headlong into this outrageous quilt project.  I didn't research, didn't plan, just started cutting. 

My grandmother donated me her mother's old, quality, swiss Bernina sewing machine (affectionately known as 'Bern') and I was off.

That was 2.5 years ago.  YEARS.
And it's still not done.
I finally cut it and sewed the top of the quilt together, bought back material and filler, and basted the whole beast together.  You might have remember a post with me displaying what the quilt looked like at that point.  

Through one maternity leave and entering into another one the quilt was finally 'almost' complete but then I had another cute project delayer:

Funny, having not researched I didn't realize that all of the above, which took me over 2 years to do, was actually the FASTEST part of the project.  [So funny].  I put it in my calendar "stitch whole quilt together" on one evening.  I had no idea that the actual quilting begins now.

Oh.

So back in November before baby boy the second arrived, I had a King sized quilt that still needed to be sewn together.  Oh boy.  I could send it out to get someone to do it, do it by machine (which would be tricky since it's so thick) or do it by hand.  Well, even though no one hardly does this anymore, I opted for the less convenient, most time consuming, and ridiculously tedious job of hand stitching/embroidering this gigantic memory blanket together.

Once I resigned myself to how much work this was going to be and stopped focusing on the end result, I have to say that I am thoroughly enjoying the process.  Stitch by glorious stitch I am making my way.  I get to sit.  I get to think and pray.  I get to enjoy the bliss of seeing my dream project come together.  Me.  Who often enjoys getting much done in little time, the queen of efficiency, this fast-talking, multitasking mama is enjoying the slow pace of hand sewing.  Crazy.  I am realizing that a lot of things in life are like this quilt: garden growing, child-rearing, relationship building, character change, spiritual development,  all of these happen little by little.  One square a day, stitch by stitch.  And here's the kicker: the process needs to be experienced and enjoyed every bit as much as the end result.  I am learning a lot through this memory making.

 So here it sits.  Like this.  And most evenings or nap times, if the blinds are open and lights are on, you will see me sitting here stitching away.

 *Special shout out to all the grandmas, omas and nanas that helped me along the way: my great 'grandma' Carole for her sewing machine,  Oma Brink helped me baste it together, my mom: Grandma helped me figure out Bern, and Nana purchased my fine quilting frame.