Block Number

#113

Creator

Natasha Russi

Creator Location

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Date

2023

Rights

The Euphoria Quilt

Identifier

TEQ-2024-01-113

Transcription

“Hello!

Sure getting this in by the skin of my teeth! But I’m so pleased with it and grateful to participate in the Euphoria Quilt Project. I’ve been beyond lucky to get into quilting & patchwork alongside a beautiful queer quilting community her in Chicago, who have helped me reject perfectionism, and see quilting as a medium that is brought to life through unpredictable accidents and transformations. For me, queerness and coming to identify as non-binary trans has also been about finding beauty in imperfection, redefining beauty and desire, and embracing play and pleasure as essential to identity and community. The yellow checker patches in this piece started from a pattern to make a curved optical illusion from straight strips, and the fact that none of the straight lines in the block are really straight makes me love it all the more. When sewing it, I didn’t pin anything or discipline the seam allowances, allowing the wonkiness from the fabric’s natural movement. I get more pleasure from sewing in that way, and it feels like the fabric gets to be authentic, too, rather than demanding a particular outcome from it (like gender norms so often do). This block reminds me of sun & sky, the freedom of warm sunlight on my face on a sunny day, and the expansiveness of feeling at ease / at home in my skin. Thanks for bringing us together in patchwork!

Natasha

P.S. Feel free to trim as needed! I’m terrible at measuring to size, so I left it a little bigger than 12.5 “ square for wiggle room.”