“Control is an Illusion”:

What a small quilt taught me about letting go

I wanted to make my sister, Pat, some type of art quilt. She asked me to create a small hand-sewn piece for her wall. I found a lovely floral fabric with roses and soft pinks and began with only a vague idea of what the finished piece might look like. As the small pieces were stitched together by hand, the process slowly became an exercise in releasing control and letting the piece reveal itself. The quilt turned out entirely different from what I had imagined. Hence the name: Control Is an Illusion.

This phrase was something my husband said to me many years ago. At the time, I brushed it off with a quick, “Yeah, yeah.” But as life unfolded, I began to understand the wisdom in it. We humans control far less than we think we do. There is something powerful about releasing our grip, offering our intentions to the Universe—God, Spirit, Nature, whatever name resonates—and seeing what unfolds. As I stitched the pieces of this quilt together, I realized the work itself was quietly teaching me that lesson.

And so this small quilt became more than a piece of fabric and thread. It became a quiet reminder that sometimes the most beautiful outcomes appear when we trust the process and allow something greater than our plans to take shape.

Control is an Illusion (2022)