Crossroads...A Work in Progress

I have no idea if the colors that Nancy Crow used in her quilts have specific meaning - my guess is that they do. Before choosing colors for my quilt, I gave some thought to the meaning of the word "Crossroads" and how that might guide me in the selection of colors for my quilt.

Like all good bookworms, I turned to my dictionary for a definition. Here's what I found: "Cross~road, A road that crosses another; the place where one road intersects with another; the point at which a fateful decision must be made."

So, I got to thinking about how one thing leads to another and how we all like to think that we are in charge of our lives but how it can all be changed in the blink of an eye by a tiny action like stopping for a cup of coffee or being late for work because you had to change your too-tight shoes.

Then there are the bigger things like where you grew up, who you spend time with and where you work. I thought of all the "big" things in my life and assigned colors to all of them - some based on the actual color (like my high school colors), others by using the first letter of a name (like lavender, chartreuse & lavender to represent my lifelong friends Lisa, Colleen & Louise). Coming up with colors to represent my parents was easy, my Mom had amazing blue eyes and my Dad has brown eyes, like me (my three siblings all have Mom's blue eyes).

I selected the fabrics based on the "thing" I was trying to depict, not taking any consideration of how I'm going to make all of this work together visually. After all, my life has been a patchwork - who knew that would all work together? But, somehow, it has, and it does.

Funny that I am working on this now, the week after Thanksgiving. Though my life is pretty ordinary, I feel so gifted. I was born to amazing parents and was raised in a fun, stable and loving home (where my father still lives). My sunny yellow bedroom was my favorite room in the house. I have three loving siblings who sometimes drive me nuts but who would always be by my side if I needed them - and I, by theirs. My three best friends from childhood still live close enough that we have dinner a few times a year and growing up with them in the charming town of Shrub Oak was a joy. I loved High School and that it helped me to accomplish my first career goal of becoming a professional florist (I later convinced my Mom to buy a flower shop, depicted by the green & raspberry slice of fabric). I later returned to Mercy College for my Accounting degree & fell in love with the best husband I could hope for who also brought three step-kids into my life, followed by five grandchildren. All of that has been converted into the colors I've used for the strips in my Crossroads quilt. It will be a challenge to make all the colors work together but, that's o.k., what's life without a few challenges?