The past several years, seasonal affective disorder (SAD) has been slamming me to the mat pretty hard.

Why mention that when we are closing in on the longest day of the year? Maybe it’s that the days’ scandalous length are a constant reminder of the contrast come winter. Having a doomsday attitude about life helps me prepare for the rougher bits, and part of that is Summer Laura making gifts for Winter Laura.

As spring sidles in, I like to do things I won’t have energy for when short, dark days of winter come. One year, I painted our sun porch white to reflect more light into the house. Another year, I permanently set the indoor lights on timers so that when it started to get dark, lights would come on in the common spaces of our home, eliminating the need to turn them on (or frantically set timers before leaving for vacation, which we did, badly, for years). I painted some rooms darker colors, and others, lighter. These warm weather projects result in a more welcoming cave to retreat to when it comes time to hibernate.

Not all these things are linear – some changes created more light, some less, but the end result is a safe place to rest until things get better again. This year, it’s a duvet cover.I’ve tried a number of solutions for staying comfortable at night. These days, a lightweight, shared sheet and quilt serve through the warmer months, and his and hers duvets in the winter. Having my own duvet means I can cocoon myself each night. No worrying about my blanket being ripped off me in my sleep by a sleeping partner or unexpected drafts. And duvets mean duvet covers.

The summery color palette of the new duvet cover isn’t like any other textile I’ve made before. It’s beautiful. I’ve been buying quilting cotton as a stress reliever for the past year and a half, so this was an effective stash buster.

The front is a series of 12 inch blocks, several pieced together. I didn’t follow a pattern for the order of fabrics, but made sure the end result was visually pleasing. The finished dimensions of the cover are about 60 x 80 in, slightly smaller than a regular twin duvet cover (66″ x 86″ according to the internet), measured from an existing cover I had from IKEA.To get the right total dimensions, I sewed a rectangle six squares by eight squares. Finished squares were 11″ with the 1/2 in. seam allowance. I cut 4 inch strips from each side and an 8 inch strip from the bottom of the rectangle to get to the finished size plus the seam allowance for the outside edges. I used the strips I cut off to begin piecing the back of the duvet together with the remainder of my fabric scraps. I put the strips in an offset cross, then filled in the four spaces around it.

I sewed the two finished rectangles together on three sides, and about a foot in from each corner at the bottom to leave an opening for the duvet. The edges of the opening are reinforced with a tight zigzag stitch to prevent the seam from ripping open. I hand hemmed the opening with rainbow thread from my stash that matched the color palette perfectly.There is something wonderfully predictable about piecing quilting cotton – the way it rips straight across, only frays a little, and as long as you’re fairly on grain, irons beautifully. I mostly kept to the color scheme with my thread choices, but whenever I ran out of one thread color, I’d load up whatever was close to matching and on hand, which means the guts are a riot of blue, teal, lilac, white, and some orange (which admittedly doesn’t match anything.)

It came together over the course of a weekend – I started with some squares I’d cut years before on a Friday, chose a few that I liked, and then started playing around with fabrics till I had a color scheme. I finished hemming the opening the following Tuesday. I pieced it together on the unvacuumed living room floor, and many dirty bare feet padded over it before I managed to sew it all together. It was visibly grubby by the time I was finished with it. This is why I make my projects so quickly – if I let them sit around, they get ruined very quickly.

I washed it, and hung it outside to dry. I love pulling sheets or blankets out of my grandmother’s wooden linen chest, and have the smell of line dried clothes waft off them when I fluff them onto the bed. I methodically wash, hang my bedding outside, and store them one set at a time at towards the end of summer to increase the chances of that fresh blast in the winter.

I’ll tuck the duvet cover in the wooden chest to wait until the day the Chaplain and I decide it’s time to switch back to the duvets to stay warm at night. It will come out smelling and feeling like the brisk breeze that dried it. It’s something to look forward to, when the cold and dark come back, and also, having finished it, maybe I’ll be forgiving of myself if I don’t accomplish much else this summer.

In addition to painting, mending, and sewing special things with an eye for winter, I like to freeze CSA veggies from our farm share for pizza toppings, seasonings, and soup all winter long, and treat myself to big, beautiful books a few times a year. What is your special sauce for preparing to get through the winter? Are you offended that I would mention the cold and dark at this time of year?