Quilt of Many Places

Squares of life in California

Me at about 4-years-old in Santa Cruz, California

I had a birthday this week so I took some time to consider my origin story, and the geographical places that have nurtured and influenced me. I was born and raised in Santa Cruz, California, a place (in the 70s) with a lot of artists, hippies, environmentalists and dreamers. If I am a quilt of places then Santa Cruz, and specifically a neighborhood called Opal Cliffs a few blocks from Pleasure Point, is one of the biggest squares.

This patch has its share of damage, but it also represents a childhood spent outside, near the Pacific Ocean and majestic redwood forests. The fabric is sewn on an old sewing machine and is tattered and faded but it also holds the first stitches of imagination.

Sacramento, where I went to college is another important piece and would be a boldly-patterned and sturdy material, like canvas. In Sacramento I learned to love Emerson and Thoreau and the camelias which dropped their sleepy blossoms onto the ground. This scrap would be hot-glue-gunned because in Sacramento times could be hard so I had to be resourceful.

Smaller parts of the quilt would be constructed with tiny squares for the San Francisco Bay Area, where I frequently visited my aunt and which would be done up in orange thread, and Southern California, my heartland, which would be crafted from expensive (branded) denim. A few small patches of green fabric would be added to represent the small towns, like Auburn, and Rocklin, California where my daughter was born.

I live in Loomis, California now and have been here for 15 years, the longest I have lived anywhere. This square would be a busy fabric, maybe paisley to mimic family life. Stitched into the center of the quilt, this block represents marriage, raising two kids and creating two businesses—one a laborious farm—all while trying (unsuccessfully) to remodel an old house. Life is good here but it has also been a lot.

Things are changing and slowing down now and I am thinking about adding a new square. It’s a fantasy and probably not affordable. Also where would I go?

What I have come to understand is that I am powerful beyond my wildest dreams and can create almost anything out of bits and pieces. I can go anywhere and it will be fine, because I am at home with myself.

I am the needlewoman. I gather and arrange the scraps that make up this quilt of life.