For Writing Week, students have to spend forty hours doing a project that relates to at least one of their courses and then write a paper about their experience. I decided to make a quilt. I've never made one before and figured this would be a great time to learn. It was all self-taught, just using my own reasoning to figure out what could or could not be done, and I got my share of pricked fingers for it. It is based on the Odyssey, each panel with a different symbol from the epic poem. I think the best way to describe the work I did is to show you the many pictures I took of the process.
I bought a ton of different fabrics for the quilt and tried to stay in the earthy tones region.
I tried my best to measure twice, cut and sew once. I made a few (a lot of) mistakes along the way.
I was so proud when I successfully created my first square. I celebrated and did what I now deem my Quilting-Success dance for a few minutes.
Then, sewing my squares together to make an even larger square was actually really rewarding.
I then sewed on my symbols onto each square. An owl for Pallas Athena, a ship (duh, there's a hundred ships in every Greek story), and the winged sandal of Hermes.
I didn't get to finish my quilt, or get anywhere close to finishing, but that's ok. It's about the journey, not the success. I spent forty hours on my project and then wrote an eight page paper on the process and what I learned from it. We (my facilitators and I) discussed my project and my semester at my Final Conference. Writing Week is a ton of fun and something you can't really find at other colleges.
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