Colors of Joy

August 2005

Patty's sample of Fickle Pickle (a contemporary variation of the Kansas City Star quilt pattern first published in October 1931) was displayed at the quilt shop in early 2004. I fell in love with the pattern and vowed that someday I would be able to make one for myself. I wasn't qualified to even open the pattern envelope, but that didn't stop me from dreaming and knowing that mine would be made with batiks in every color of the rainbow.

When the class was offered again in 2005, I was ready for the challenge. I'd been collecting fat quarters and half yards of batiks for almost a year and I was thrilled to discover that the pattern wasn't nearly as mind bending as it first appeared. After the first class, I was off and running. Obsessed or possessed - either one was accurate to describe my work on the quilt top.

And as the top grew, the name became obvious to me.

This quilt was entered in the 2005 Mid South Fair. I didn't expect to win any ribbons or awards. What I really wanted was to share its vibrant and exuberant colors in the hope that at least one visitor would be touched with the kind of soul stirring joy that it has brought to me. Much to my surprise, Colors of Joy was awarded a second place ribbon in its category.

Since the Fair, the quilt has hung in our foyer and remains one of my top five favorite quilts (my husband's top two).

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"Beauty is the experience that gives us a sense of joy and a sense of peace simultaneously. Other happenings give us joy and afterwards a peace, but in beauty these are the same experience. Beauty is serene and at the same time exhilarating; it increases one’s sense of being alive. Beauty gives us not only a feeling of wonder; it imparts to us at the same moment a timelessness, a repose—which is why we speak of beauty as being eternal."
(Rollo May)