I completed the Sunshine and Shadow quilt square today, which will be the masthead of Chapter 17 in my memoir. I particularly love greens and yellows, and these added an extra dimension of mindful pleasure to the lengthy process of making the pattern grids and then constructing the quilt block.
Four squares are now completed of the thirty-five that make up the quilt grid I planned out last fall, so I have a long journey ahead with the pleasing-to-me array of patterns and squares that remain to be created. When I was much younger, I had little patience for the time that long-term projects required; I wanted to get it done quickly so I could hold the completed project in my hands. A generous gift of the passing decades has been one of learning to focus on one thing at a time and experience the deep pleasure such mindfulness gives.
Thus I have tagged this post under Gifts, Gratitude, as well as Quilts. And, now I look forward with pleasure to starting the next quilt square tomorrow.
About Mary Jo Doig
Mary Jo Doig was the first in her family to attend college and graduated from the State University at Oneonta in New York’s Catskill Mountains with a degree in Secondary English Education/Educational Psychology. There she fell in love with rural life, remained, and eventually transitioned from city girl to country woman when she married a dairy farmer and raised their three children on their small family farm.
A life-long lover of reading and writing, Mary Jo has for nearly twenty years been a member of the Story Circle Network. There she has been an editor, a women’s writing circle facilitator, a book reviewer, and life-writing enthusiast, working extensively with women writing their life-stories while writing her own memoir. Presently, she is a three-time Program Chair for SCNs national Stories from the Heart conference and a board member. She also facilitates Older Women’s Legacy workshops and a women’s life-writing circle in her area communities. Her stories have appeared in Kitchen Table Stories anthology, Story Circle Annual Anthologies, and most recently her story “I Can’t Breathe” was published in the Anthology, Inside and Out: Women’s Truths, Women’s Stories. Her work also appears in varied blogs and periodicals, on her blog Musings from a Patchwork Quilt Life (https://maryjod.wordpress.com), Facebook, and Twitter.
Her son and two daughters grown, Mary Jo presently treasures her country life in Virginia’s Central Shenandoah Valley. She loves cooking (and eating!) healthy food, reading, writing, quilting, hiking, and spending quality time with her rescue cats, Button and Xena, and beagle, Addie, who each dream of being only children.
Her first book, Patchwork: A Memoir of Love and Loss, will be published in October, 2018 by She Writes Press.
Musings From a Patchwork Quilt Life 
Beautiful colors, beautifully reflecting light and shadow – love it! Sooo, for the nonquilters like me, how large is this square? Are all 35 of equal size?
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Jazz,
I accidentally sent my answer to another reader. Each square is a 10.5″ square that will transform to 10″ square when stitched together, 5 squares wide and 7 squares long, with the center square being the title of my memoir.
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Yes, all equal size – 10.5 inches square to transform into a 10″ square when stitched together – 5 squares across and 7 down. The center square will be the memoir title. Thanks for asking!
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What a lovely way to honor your memoir. Not only will you be able to hold the book in your hands, your quilt will give you memories of the process of writing it to enjoy as well. Very creative. And I know the joy of slowing down and taking one thing at a time these days, too.
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