Garden Path

This year our quilt class is working on Jen Kingwell’s quilt, Green Tea and Sweet Beans. Like most of her designs, this is an impossibly ambitious project, with a frenetic, busy-looking end product. Two years ago we did Kingwell’s Gossip in the Garden https://mombowe.blogspot.com/2017/10/gossip-in-garden.html . We replaced several of the complex appliqued blocks with simpler foundation-pieced designs, and I think we were quite satisfied with the results. When introducing the pattern for today’s block, our instructor compared doing that with cutting corners in a marathon: she said both were “cheating.” I’ve had nearly three weeks to consider what she said, and I’ve decided I don’t care. Doing everything Ms. Kingwell’s way won’t be relaxing; not while I’m stitching the blocks together, and not later when I’m admiring the finished quilt. If doing things my own way is cheating, then you can call me a cheat. I'm fine with that.