Chicago Modern Quilt Guild Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States
I packed seven feet of wide yardage muslin and a few fabric swatches in a tote and flew to India in 2019. I'd been longing to make this trip for years, and documenting the time with a quilt felt like an essential way to stay present. Appliqued on airplanes, under mosquito netting, and used as a bedsheet, this quilt emerged equally from practical and aesthetic considerations. 5 months after my return from India, I hand quilted this in quarantine. India was perhaps the smallest bubble of personal space in my lifetime, and March 2020 was the largest. Completing the piecing was slow as my lungs healed from exposure to air pollution, and I processed the trip. I appliqued many textile artifacts like a free calendar insert, jewelry bags, and some kantha swatches that I purchased at QuiltCon 2018. The title is a yoga lesson, referencing expansion and contraction.
