Mom's Nine Patch

Forget about "Facebook Official." After nine years of togetherness, my partner and I made our relationship legally recognized and State of Florida official. Sure it was over a year ago, but I thought I would share a story about why my husband is the best. 

We had a short guest list, mostly because we had an even shorter budget. It might be a mid-west mind set, or just a personal challenge, but I have this guilty feeling asking people to do something for me. I even felt guilty asking my parents to travel from Michigan to Florida for our special day. (Don't worry, they made it.) 

The Friday before our wedding, there was an event for the young artists in our school district, and being the art teacher I am, not only did I feel obligated to go, but I had committed to reading the names, graduation style, of all the artists being honored at this function. Typically, after the art show, we art teachers work together to take down the show. I sheepishly said, "I really don't think I can stay, it's after 6,  my family is in town, I have an hour drive home and I'm getting married on Sunday." My fellow art teachers chastised me for not telling them, and made it clear that as friends we should celebrate such events together.

I felt horrible as I began my drive home. Why didn't I feel I should share this with my friends? I didn't share the news with my art teacher friends, and I didn't tell friends from home either. I dialed my best friend from college, whom I've written about before, sobbing. "Anna, I am a terrible friend. I didn't tell you that I'm getting married. I wanted to invite you, but didn't want you to have to come all this way." I went to explain that it was only a couple of days away, and it was going to be really small. We didn't invite anyone from Michigan other than my parents. The plan was for a small wedding, and bigger party sometime later in the year. Anna, always good at consoling, assured me it was OK, that she would make sure she could come to the party, and that there weren't any hard feelings. Our phone conversation came to an end as she was going to meet her family in a noisy restaurant. 

Later that evening, my soon to be husband, was called to meet his colleague,  our mutual friend and wedding officiant (they are the same person), regarding some real estate work. I was happy to stay in and visit with my parents. Progression of time. One of our guests from out of town arrived to stay with us, and we chatted and shared a beer. Progression of time. I was starting to get worried that my fiance had run away, when hours later he came through the door. He told me that his colleague, our mutual friend and wedding officiant and her husband (two different people) had an early wedding gift for us and were waiting in the drive way.

I stepped outside, and from behind our two mutual friends lept my bestie from college, whom I'd just had a phone conversation with mere hours before. I was dumbfounded, and in tears yet again. I had just talked to her on the phone. I was in Florida, she was going to a family dinner near Detroit! 

No, she was not going to dinner. She had to get me off the phone so I wouldn't hear the busy airport! She and my husband had been planning from the time we started planning the wedding. It was the best gift ever! 

So why the quilt. This nine patch is one of the tops that my mom brought with her for me to quilt. She thought it was a simple nothing quilt that she had thrown together from left over fabrics. I showed my mom that it was beautiful with an all over leaf and berry design. I think every major event should include great friends, family and quilts.

Nine Patch Courthouse Steps

I pulled this beautiful quilt from the frame recently. The client who expertly pieced it had fallen in love with a quilt from a magazine, and purchased the matching fabrics so that she could make it just like the picture. 

The applique border was treated with echo quilting, which I found to be very fun to do. The courthouse steps blocks received cross hatching in the central nine patch, and serpentine waves alternating with diamonds in each of the 'steps.' I followed the quilting suggestions from the magazine to make this quilt as close to the original as possible. 

I love this little quilt, and was imagining one made in subtle autumn colors such as this color palette entitled 'Culinary Autumn' from Design Seeds, inspired by a photograph from Instagrammer _ewabakrac. 

My dream for this quilt, would be to recreate it with these colors, and to have autumn leaves, pumpkins, and acorns appliqued around the border. It's just another quilt to add to my quilty bucket list. 

Prize Winning Quilt

Once upon a time, there was a naive long arm quilter who loved making quilts. He had recently participated in the Foothills Mystery Quilt along hosted by Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs and discovered that she would be hosting a second mystery. This naive and ambitious quilter was so excited that he eagerly shopped for fabric for this next adventure, and jumped in surprise and joy when his husband purchased fabric to make a second mystery quilt! 

A portion of the naive quilter's fabric choices are pictured on the left, and his husband's choices are on the right.

Cheryl had been such a kind and gracious hostess that the ambitious long arm quilter wanted to extend an offering of gratitude to her and perhaps to her loyal quilt detectives. He decided to offer his services as a quilter to one of the cunning solvers of the Midnight Mystery. The details of this prize were documented here.

Confession, I'm an art teacher, and a maker. I am not a writer. So I'm going to stop with this silly narrative from above and will just go on to say that I, the naive quilter, in the story ended up being delighted and extremely nervous when the winners of the various prizes were announced. I was going to be quilting for Mel Beach! If you do not know who she is, you should check out her website Mel Beach Quilts and blog Piece, Love, and Happiness! When you do, you'll find that she is amazingly talented and inspirational and that the picture featured on her website, is of her and the quilt that I finished for her! Whoa, I'm thrilled beyond belief!

Anyway, I was really nervous when I found out that I would be quilting for Mel, whom, I have to admit was a complete stranger to me, as this online quilting community is so vast that I had never heard of her. Mel has it going on. She is an accomplished quilter and does workshops and lectures about quilt challenges, mandala quilts, and improvisational techniques. She is a true master, and I am a mere fledgling.

I consulted with her via e-mail, and sent her several quilting ideas that I drew out based on a picture of her quilt. Here are some examples of my sketched out ideas.

 

 We decided that diagonal lines and curves would compliment the on-point setting of vibrantly colored rectangles in Mel's quilt top. Additionally, a brightly colored thread was chosen that blends into the bright geometric shapes, but pops against the deep blue background.

The pattern was a delight to quilt out. Unfortunately, I am terrible at documenting the process of quilting, and only have these few photos of the quilt in progress.

If you've read my blog before, you might know that I am fascinated by quilt stories, and I am so happy that I am a part of this quilts history. If you would like to read more about the piecing and challenge behind this quilt top, pop over to Mel's post, where she describes the entire process and has more fantastic pictures.

Meanwhile, I'd love to quilt for you, and there is another opportunity up for grabs with Cheryl's new Meadow Mystery Quilt along. Check out the details on Cheryl's blog! (She also has way better pictures than I do!)

Have you won any prizes from the world of quilting? What is the best prize that you've received?

Fabricating a quilt story

I am constantly amazed at the variety of quilts that are being made, or have been made. In September of last year I was asked to quilt an antique red and white quilt that had been found tucked away in the hall closet of the childhood home of my client's husband. Fascinated by the stories surrounding a quilt I was curious to know more about this one. The spiraling shapes were unlike any quilt block I had seen, The quilt seemed to have been constructed during one period of time and then forgotten about and then borders added to it. The curvaceous piecing was done by hand with a thick white thread, the starts and stops finished with large knots. The borders of the quilt were machine pieced, and added to the center of the quilt by machine in such a way that the whole quilt top appeared to roll like the Appalachian Mountains.

 The quilt was constructed of solid red and white fabrics with a stripe of patterned red. In the picture above I tried to show how much fullness was in the quilt top. I knew that I would not be able to quilt this top without there being small tucks and puckers. The most troubling area was in one corner where the border was added in such a way that there was considerable bubble of fabric. I would have to do a bit of reconstruction in this area to make it more manageable.

I failed to take a picture before I picked the seams of this corner, but you can still see how there is a considerable curve between the white border and the inner red fabric.

Here, I've added almost two inches to the white border, using unbleached muslin that matches the original fabric, and a red fabric to fill in the space near the white border and add to the outer white border. I machine stitched where the quilt had been machine stitched, and I hand stitched where the quilt was originally hand stitched. 

Can you see the large white hand stitches that piece the curves in the upper right part of the picture? I wanted to show the front and the back here, so that we could see the old and new bits together. 

Then I began quilting with a feather motif that I thought would play well with the shapes of the quilt.

 I made large feathers in the curves, connected with a chain of circles. I knew I would go back to finish each of the more square areas with additional circle chains on the un-stitched sides, and add a design in the center.

 From the backside the texture was taking shape, and a spectacular second design was being created as I switched threads to match the colors in the top of the quilt.

 Under poor lighting I took a final picture of the quilt before I delivered it to the appreciative couple. I was able to hear a bit more about where the quilt was found. It turns out that this childhood home was also the home of a former governor of Alabama. The home only had two owners, Governor Henderson and the family of my client. They were not sure where the quilt had come from, if it was something that belonged in the family, or was a remnant from the previous owner. I suggested that this was a perfect opportunity to fabricate a story about how the wife of Governor Henderson had worked on this quilt and tucked it away It was later discovered by the next home's owners who added the borders to the quilt and stashed it in the very same closet where it would be found decades later. I know this quilt has a story, and while we may not know it's beginnings, I am certainly glad that I could be a part of its tale.

Here is a picture of the client's childhood home.

Sun Bonnet Sue

I have foggy memories of a Sun Bonnet Sue quilt that used to reside in the bedroom of my aunt Lori. If I remember correctly it was made by my aunt Kathy, Lori's sister. The blocks were laid out simply in rows and may or may not have had sashing. In an effort to clear the fog, I called my aunt to hear her quilt story. Of course she remembered the quilt made by her sister, who lovingly appliqued each of the squares. It had become worn with use and age. The colors were once bright, now faded. The quilt itself had become just a memory. 

In early November, I had the good fortune of doing some client quilting and Sun Bonnet Sue made a return visit. This was the first time I had ever quilted a piece with applique, and I was nervous. My client, Ms. A, had carefully planned how she wanted to quilt to look, and included lace details that had belonged to her mother. The quilt was a gift for her first great-grandchild, and would have the sentiment of five generations. 

 There were nine little Sunny's in this quilt and I gave them each a place to play; a field to pick flowers, a well worn path to walk on, hills of fresh grass to shuffle their feet through and fluffy clouds to help shade them.

 There were flowers and hearts adding points of variety that were quilted with swirls.

 Ms. A, was very pleased with the results, She created a beautiful quilt that will be loved and cherished.

This post has been sitting in my drafts folder since last November. I'm not sure what has held me back from sharing. My aunt, like her beloved quilt, is now a memory, and my quilty conversation with her one of the last times we spoke. She passed away early last week. The youngest of my father's siblings she has left us too early. I will remember her for being a beloved babysitter to my brother and I. I will remember her for crafting with me as a child, she taught how to stitch plastic canvas and we made all sorts of magnets and tissue box covers, but I also developed skills in craftsmanship, and color selections. I will remember Lori as a recipe collector who loved to make foods of all sorts. She was never afraid to try making something new, even if it meant searching for exotic ingredients, and taught me that you should not fear making alterations to a recipe. The same sun that shined down on us as we experimented with yet another wacky barbecue grill technique will hold the fog at bay from my memories of Aunt Lori.