Quilts

Been missing the quilting? So have I. While my sewing machine and iron sit in the corner sulking and lonely I've been busy with other projects (knitting is just so much more portable and easy to take along with me). But in the back of my mind I've been thinking about quilts and quilting and planning my next project... okay, next fifty projects.

Not forgetting all my UFOs, there's "The Quilt Between the States" I promised I'd design for a couple people (a quilt which in theory could/would have been made by quilters during the American Civil War), I promise to finish up our For the Birds Sampler soon ("soon" a loosely defined term which translates as "sometime before I die"), and, oh yeah, I've got an absolutely huge quilt just sitting there basted and waiting for me to finish it.

But also, I'm curious to try these Crumby Maverick Stars, and some small part of me wants to make a few of those 5 inch Dear Jane Quilt Blocks too -- like Melanie, who is Crazy About Quilts .

I've been thinking about small quilts and smaller quilt blocks ever since reading about the Priority Alzheimer's Quilts and the monthly quilt auction put on by the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. Making a small quilt next sounds like a good idea, don't you think?

Politics and Quilting

The Whig Rose Wreath:Examples of feminine political influence hide among the historic names of quilt patterns showing that long before we had the vote we were interested in who our elected officials would be. For example numerous quilt patterns feature the Whig Rose. What is a Whig?

The American Whig Party was active in the political elections of 1836 through 1856, and was formed in opposition to the heavy-handed policies of President Andrew Jackson but eventually dissolved over the issues of slavery. William Henry Harrison, and Zachary Taylor, (as well as his VP who assumed office then) Millard Fillmore were the successful Whig presidential candidates.

When the Whigs split, the "Cotton Whigs" who supported slavery joined the Democrats and the "Conscience Whigs" who sought to curtail/end slavery formed the Republican party. Abraham Lincoln, who had been a Whig before joining the newly formed Republican party, could arguably be said to be the last Whig President and the first Republican President.

Interesting to note Harrison's 1840's campaign was "log cabins and hard cider." There has been much debate over the existence of non-existence of the Log Cabin Block previous to the Civil War, as the creation of the block has often been attributed to the inspiration of the log cabin campaign of Abraham Lincoln. Not to muddy the water, but (without any proof and as supposition only) I suggest that Harrison's campaign may have inspired the log cabin block, leading to it's existence pre-States War. It seems logical that women inspired by one Whig President's log cabin campaign might revive and further spread their pattern during a similar campaign. For me, this would explain the confusion over the origins of the block, and also the long association of the Log Cabin Block with anti-slavery ideals. Just a thought.

Pink Quilt

In my box of unfinished quilt tops waits this simple pinwheel. The plan is to hand quilt it myself someday, filling that large open white space with close quilting. (You know, perfect my stitch lengths with lots of practice.) I found a Celtic knotwork cross I'd love to use as the quilting template.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share it for Pink Saturday. It's pink in two ways. First, there's the pink in the printed fabric.


Secondly that pink fabric is from an early Quilt for the Cure collection. Although it doesn't flaunt its purpose with obvious pink ribbons (like some pink ribbon fabrics), Quilt for the Cure actually donates part of their proceeds to breast cancer research.

Sounds positively pink to me. Check out more pink with Beverly at How Sweet the Sound.



[Note; there's also a touch of pink in the flower seeds and seed envelopes you could win in my Giveaway. If you haven't entered yet, just scroll down to the next post to leave your comment and enter.]

Two Snuggly Star Quilts

In the Leisure Arts book Quick Quilts from Your Scrap Bag there are an insane number of quilts I love (and a couple I'm not keen on, but, hey, everyone has their own style). I rarely follow someone else's designs, preferring to create my own; and I rarely make the same quilt twice, because there are so many quilts I want to make, I don't have time for more than one of each.
Unless it's an Odd Fellow's Star, and you can see why can't you? To start with it's a great name. Okay, they called it Odd Fellow's March in the book, but I've heard it called both.

The quilter in the book, Susan Marie Stewart from Colorado, used a flying geese border where I opted for a sawtooth, and I haven't exactly followed her dimensions either, but I'm totally on board with her idea of using scrappy homespuns for these blocks.
In that one I used reds and browns and golds -- earthy tones-- and a shot of a color I call "Arsenic green" It's larger so I sent it to a friend to hand quilt for me, she's done a couple quilts for me before and she's really good so there's always a bit of a backlog. This quilt's been at her house for a long time waiting it's turn and she's finally putting it in the frame this week. :-) I can't wait to see what she does. It's going to be great!

The one I quilted myself is a smaller, snuggle on the couch, extra comfort when you're sick or had a bad day sort of size. I did that one with just blue homespuns; and instead of a solid Kona for my background I used light tonal prints (for extra fun scrapiness).

And I set it on point. [You didn't really expect me to make two quilts exactly the same now did you?]

Besides, see how nicely it shows off an individual block in the corners;

but you still get the stars where the blocks come together in the center of the quilt.

Those inset triangles also provide a place for adding a few daises -- in the quilting of it.

Don't you love the puckers where it shrank around the stitching when I washed it? It's so happy.

Building Blocks (Part 1)

Who needs math? I remember arguments with my parents over doing useless algebra equations and geometry exercises. I remember my absolute certainty I would never need those word problems in the real world. And who would ever need to know how to draw a stupid parallelogram or enlarge a triangle?

Then I became a quilter. I don’t want to mention the number of times I’ve muttered “a squared plus b squared equals c squared… now add a quarter inch seam allowance.” Knowing math means being able to figure out how to take that tiny complicated block and grow it up into a larger still-complicated-but-I-don’t-have-to-make-as-many block. God bless math.

Dissecting quilt blocks to their core units allows me to recognize patterns, repeating shapes that are used and reused in different blocks. This is particularly obvious with the curved seam unit that is used to construct the block known as Drunkard’s Path. Four of those units put together one way make Robbing Peter to Pay Paul, while sixteen units laid out completely differently make Wonder of the World. I can see from a quick dip into my favorite reference books that there are many more possibilities as well.

What are my favorite reference books?
849 Traditional Patchwork Patterns by Susan W. Mills, The Quilter’s Album of Blocks and Borders by Jinny Beyer, Carrie Hall Blocks by Bettina Havig, and The Art of Classic Quiltmaking by Harriet Hargrave and Sharyn Craig.

What other quilt blocks use this quarter circle unit?
Wait and see.

Quilts and Tea

Perhaps this has only been my experience, or perhaps it is true for others as well. Quilters drink tea. In Jeff Brumbeau and Gail de Marcken’s marvelous book The Quiltmaker’s Gift the quiltmaker who lives an idyllic live on the top of the mountains drinks blackberry teas and settles in to quilt. She pours tea for a bear and her teapot billows with her skirts from a rope tied round her waist when she is stranded on the tiny island. (That is one of my favorite of all the beautiful pictures in the book.)

Basically, she drinks tea. I drink tea too. I never acquired a taste for coffee, that bitter drug, but tea…

Green teas, black teas, oolongs, “sky between branches,” “cup of poetry,” “dragon’s well.” Who can resist the alluring scents of “blackberry sage” and “Moroccan mint;” who doesn’t love the image conjured by “monkey-picked oolong,” it’s irresistible. Okay, I’m not a fan of the smoky Lapsang Souchong, but it’s so fun to say I wish I did like it.

Sure, I’ve met quilters who also drink coffee, but tea always seems the beverage of choice. Am I wrong? Have I misunderstood; are they merely playing along with a woman obviously obsessed over tea? I don’t know, but I don’t think so. There’s teapot and teacup fabric on the shelves of the local stores, bolts of it. I’ve never notices any coffee mug prints. There’s even a quilt block called tea leaf and…. well, no, I suppose the Temperance T quilt block isn’t really T for Tea, so much as it is T for Temperance. But it could be, don’t you think?