My family tree

A while back, a new friend suggested that we do a block exchange.  I would make a block and send to her and she would make a block to send to me.  We would then each complete the other person's block as a finished quilt. As both our families are environmentally conscious, we decided to use trees as the theme for our block.

I have never done anything like this and to be honest, I was very intimidated.  She is such a skilled, talented designer and quilter.  I am not sure that I could make something that she would appreciate or even like!  Even though she said, "no stress, no time limit, just when ever the mood strikes".   Still I had an immediate brain freeze. 

It was almost Thanksgiving.  Family holiday dinners and celebrations are coming along quickly, but wait! I had a vision.  I was compelled  to make this block in the midst of all this helter skeltered activity.  It took almost no time at all to make my sketch, grab some scraps and do some quick free piecing.

The holidays passed and I had not mailed this off to my friend. One day as I was critiquing the block, still hanging on my design wall, a thought suddenly occurred to me.  I realized why I was so compelled to get this completed in the midst of frantic holiday preparations.  You might notice that there are four tree trunks in this block.  One block for each family member: father, mother, daughter, son.  The tree on the left is spaced slightly apart from the other three.  The branches from the three trees on the right seem to be stretching out toward the tree on the left.   My daughter lives across the country from the rest of our family and would not be home for the holidays this year.  She would be spending the holidays with her husband and his family.  Was this a subconscious effort on my part?  All the while I was making this block, I wanted to extend it to include many more trees to complete the picture. But we had set a size limit.  I would have to save this idea for another day.   In the mean time ~ this block has gone to my lovely friend to share a part of my heart and my family.  And I am looking forward to receiving her block.  A gift from her heart and her family. 

Do you ever have those moments, when you look back at something you have created and realized that there was a deeper, unconscious force that causes you to create ?  What colors to choose, how to relay to others what you are feeling?