Comfort Quilt For My Younger Self

There’s a technique in talk therapy in which you remember a painful time in your past that I’ve found to be really powerful. You articulate what you needed in that moment, then imagine your current self giving it to your younger self. I’ve found that thinking about giving hugs and kind words to earlier versions of myself has not only helped heal trauma, it has helped me be kinder to all of the versions of myself I’ve been hard on.

I often use the quilting process to reflect on thoughts and memories that are uncomfortable and recontextualize them in a literally softer way. I made this quilt for my younger self with soothing soft colors, organic cotton, wool batting, and  all the soft squishiness of the best hugs. 

Because no progress is linear (and I’ve never made a quilt I couldn’t turn into a metaphor), the process of hand quilting had to be paused for two months while I physically healed the “pinch and pull” muscles of my forearm. Coincidentally I was already using bold thread with exposed knots to represent the work of healing, holding myself together, and moving on.