Gender Quilt | August 2023

A quilt of blues hangs from pegs on the wall. It is eighty inches square. It is made of entirely of squares of smaller half square triangles surrounding a large half square triangle, a border of floral print, and also checkers along the outside.

A detail shot of the long arm machine quilting in an undulating wave pattern.

A traditional “Lady of the Lake'' pattern includes a pinwheel motif, the first pattern I learned from my grandmother over 20 years ago. I don’t know what she would have thought of my 90 degree turn, removing the pinwheels. She passed away in 2007, the day before I turned 19. I wonder how she stored her fabric and how she managed to make baby quilts for all the babies and what she would think about the baby quilts I make now for the babies and whether or not she would have liked my “Lady of the Lake'' edit. The moment I rotated the squares felt like a truer honoring of my grandmother’s craft and my own.

The blues in this quilt are the playground, baggy blues I wore growing up. And the sawtooth edges are my fire and pointy chin and my dark red wedding dress. The navy floral border is the elegance I got from my mother as I spread mulch and walk in public.

I am a lady of the lake. Well, I am the lady of some lakes, on most days. I am also the tomboy of the garden. And grandmother of the river and to all my friends. And undecidedly a mother, but definitely a king. This quilt is my gender, an amalgamation of ongoing preferences, and a realization of why my name as my pronoun feels right, at least on this swim in this lake with this lady.