Passage Quilting and Transformational Healing
If you google the popular term “transformational healing” it’s basically described as a practice that rewires your inner network of neurons to transform memories of your situation in an embodied way through your limbic or relational brain, to create new narratives about our past present and future and rewriting the stories we tell ourselves.
There were 70+ participants in the livestream Passage Quilting workshop in September and many were remembering the life of a loved one who passed. There also many who were exploring past traumas and identities to rewrite the stories of their relationship to their younger feminist self, or former professional role, or to their growing teen children, or their gender transition to name a few.
Since 2017 I’ve been in a creative slump. Rather than go over the progression and degree of my current burnout (the old story I am rewriting) I want to jump into the present and share my own passage quilting experience. I’m collaborating with the memory of my creative “little ones” and my elder wise woman artist to rewrite my current story of creative imagination and purpose.
With this intention in mind I visited my local by-the-pound thrift clearinghouse and gave myself permission to choose any piece of clothing from any gender or age — things I could imagine dressing myself in when I was 3 or 30 or 60 or 90!
And so I begin to rewrite this story through the embodied making a of a “memory” quilt. A memory quilt that calls to mind my former and future bad ass creator.
The Orange Dress
Things really began to jam when I came across the orange dress with the pink satin ribbon. THAT dress flew into my hands, announcing that indeed my creative spirit collaborator had arrived. It became the heart of my passage quilt. It’s no surprise that orange is the color of the second or sacral chakra, which according to wellandgood.com:
(the second chakra) represents and governs your emotional state and sense of creativity. And as such, it's the source of sensitivity, sexuality, intimacy, and self-expression. Often, the sacral chakra needs to be cleared of stuck energy from traumas and pent-up emotions in order to heighten your creativity and ability to express your truest self.
Watch the video tutorial on how to cut apart a dress and find out more about my Passage Quilting (transformational healing) project to reimagine my creative purpose.
Results
The quilt is far from finished, and I will keep you posted as it progress, but I’m happy to report that within a week of completing the workshop, I rented a serious studio space, and began dating again! Whoopee!
If you took the workshop, or if you’ve used quilting as a mode for transformational healing in your life to rewrite your stories, please share your experiences and outcomes in the comments!