Like, totally random

A few years ago the word random came into popular usage. It was one of those interchangeable words that could be used to describe anything you didn’t have the vocabulary to say in a meaningful way. And, in hundreds of “get to know you” activities in which people were asked to share something about themselves that no one else in the group knows, girls were sharing “I’m, like, totally random.”

I am working on a quilt that’s, like, totally random. Okay, so it’s not totally random. I chose the fabrics I would use before I started. But then–the randomness began. I cut strips of fabric and stuck them all in a plastic bag. Then I went around to my friends and family and asked them to pull a couple of strips from the bag without looking. I sewed those two strips together, and then asked another person to pick two strips–and so on. Then I cut the strips into parallelograms, stuck those into a bag and picked two at a time without looking. I sewed the two parallelograms together. Once all the parallelograms had been paired, I stuck them in a bag…

I think you get the picture. A random quilt. A truly random quilt. Not “designed” at all. Today I finished all my strips and started piecing the strips together. For the first time, I’m getting a glimpse of what my final product may look like. And, in this case, random is pretty good.

Wouldn’t you say?