Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Quilter's Prayer Flags?

I've been sewing scraps together after all. I have 42 liberated log cabin blocks in the works. Of course I'm chain piecing, just feeding one block in after another. As the blocks grow bigger the pile in back of the sewing machine gets larger faster and I'm forced to cut some free before I get to the bottom of my stack of blocks. This is what I had on one such occasion:

It reminded me of Tibetan prayer flags. To quote the Wikipedia entry,
"Traditionally, prayer flags are used to promote peace, compassion, strength, and wisdom. The flags do not carry prayers to 'gods,' a common misconception; rather, the Tibetans believe the prayers and mantras will be blown by the wind to spread the good will and compassion into all pervading space. Therefore, prayer flags are thought to bring benefit to all."

Not such a bad idea really. Don't we quilters send our quilts out into the world full of good wishes for the recipients?

This is a stack of the 38 blocks I have trimmed to 6.5" to make them interchangable with my other 6" orphan blocks. I have two blocks I think I'm going to build up to 8.5" just because I don't want to lose the imagery in the blocks. Now I'm trying to decide whether to put the blocks and the strips away when I've finished with this set or whether to start another set. This has been a fun diversion from the projects on my To Do list but it's not getting those other projects done!

6 comments:

  1. how lovely - quilters' prayer flags, i think you're onto something. keep doing what you enjoy doing, the "must do's" will always be there so snub your nose at them for now. |<.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, I love your comparison to the Tibetan prayer flags!

    That is such fun sewing, and it is so easy to get lost in it and ignore that To Do list! And the best part is that it's not wasted sewing....you have something to show for that time when you're done!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love them! I've made lots of Tibetan prayer flags of my own and they were so much fun! I had ones from learning to design and dye on silk, and ones from scraps. I need to do that again! The birds went nuts when I had them up before and pretty much borrowed them for their nests or playtime. It spread the prayers in the wind, big time. Who knows all the places those prayer flags ended up ;)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Love the link to Prayer Flags Sue, and yes, we do send our quilts, and fabric, etc out with just such good thoughts and prayers stitched in. Love Michele's comment about making them and having the birds react...think I'll try that. So glad you are sewing with us in this mountain of scraps place. Hugs, Finn

    ReplyDelete
  5. That's such a cool train of thought, prayer flags and quilts! And the paper-cut flags for celebrations, also in chain (Mexican?) It's got my brain buzzing with ideas, it would be a cool series to explore. Hmm, maybe a BJP project for next year? Thanks so much for the inspiration!

    ReplyDelete
  6. GREAT post ... I've had that same thought many times when I've chain pieced long strings of bits and pieces ... here's to good wishes!

    ReplyDelete

I'm sorry it's difficult or impossible for some of my readers to leave comments. I do appreciate your visits and the kind comments I receive.