32. Millennium Crazy: Why 2K?

As the twentieth century was coming to an end, more than a few somebodies in the quilting world issued a challenge: to make a quilt which would include 2000 different fabrics. Hundreds were begun and many were finished, including my offering shown here, an homage to the crazy quilts of old using a method that would have been all-but-impossible without today's sewing machines and rotary cutters. Made with a curved piecing technique, it was designed improvisationally, as I simultaneously "drew" and cut lines, often across seams which would have unraveled if sewn by hand. No two blocks are identical.

I thought I'd have no trouble finding 2000 different fabrics on my shelves, but my stash was less extravagant than I'd thought. Happily, my fabric shortage turned into a blessing as I begged from friends and used fabrics from my own and loved one's pasts. This is a nice way of saying I was ready to pounce upon any friend who was wearing a shirt I liked. There is even a bit of a "mother of the bride" dress from one friend. The result is "Millennium Crazy (Why 2K?)", which celebrates 2000 (the year I turned fifty) by including fabrics from each decade of my life since 1950.

If you were to look at only one--any one--of the squares that make up this quilt, you would notice (1) no fabric has been used more than once within the square, and (2) the square itself is unattractive (to put it kindly). I began the quilt with the idea of constructing one set of blocks from the center out (making them "flower"-like) and another set which would include leaf-like shapes. It quickly became clear that I would have to use lights and darks carefully so that the intended shapes could be seen. There was such a cacophany of fabrics that the quilt needed clear organizing principles or it would look as much of a mess as a lone block does. The quilt is interesting to me because it uses so many fabrics, but its success lies in the organization and repetition of shapes and values, if not fabrics.

And speaking of repetition of fabric...I had developed a careful system for counting the fabrics I had used and moving them to a different place after use, and I was able to follow the "rule" for making a millennium challenge quilt because of that system plus a very good memory for fabrics--very good, but not perfect. When the quilt was nearly finished, I noticed a fabric that had been used twice. And then another. Really searching now, I found one more--and stopped looking. My own personal rule says "never rip apart if you can fix it any other way". In this case, the other way was simple: change the rule I was following. So, my quilt may be the only millennium challenge in which there are at least 2000 fabrics used only once, with a bunch of extra pieces added "just in case" of an undiscovered repetition. It would make an interesting challenge to find the duplicates, though you'd have to be as crazy as the quilt to want to count them.

This one-of-a-kind crazy celebration was published in the 2003 Quilt Art Engagement Calendar. Even more important, the process of making it restored excitement and anticipation to my quiltmaking, prompting loads of ideas for exploring this technique of simultaneously drawing and cutting fabric and bypassing the template entirely. A new series was launched along with the new century.