I've named this quilt "Perseverance", and it took a great deal of that to finish it. I made the top not long after I was diagnosed PTSD with panic disorder and anxiety and depression. It was at a time when concentrating on anything for more than 5 minutes was difficult or impossible but I kept going back to it. Some of the blocks didn't turn out right; I didn't have enough made obviously so I just added in some flannel squares. I used heavy corduroy, men's polyester suiting (what was I thinking?), flannel, uniform material, canvas duck and denim. It weighs a ton. The quilting was nearly impossible and wasn't helped by a pieced back.

An ugly pieced back.

I started out trying to do a pattern called Ribbon Twist by Jeanne Harrison, but the materials were so dense and uneven it was not turning out the fabrics were swallowing the thread, so I changed to Bubbles-big Bubbles just to get it done. The thread broke constantly, if I got through two circles without breakage I counted myself blessed. I didn't rip out the beginning try at a pattern, it's part of the quilt's story. I bound it in scrap bias left over from some other quilts, it seemed fitting somehow.

I managed to get it done this morning, it was hard to keep at it until I was done but I did. I have come a long way in my healing since I made this top. I am no longer paralyzed by mental illness. I function and work and enjoy life again. In a way this quilt is like the story of my healing: I just kept at it.

That's why I named it Perseverance.