Long-Term Commitment

Day 21: The hard work is done: the designing, the transferring of designs, the repairs, the piecing, the pressing, the cutting-to-size, the backing and batting, the stretching and mounting, the pinning, readjusting the pinning, more pinning, pinning and re-pinning. Now all that remains besides adding a finishing binding is the actual quilting of Mousie's grandma's Dresden plates. Before the sun rose this morning, I had already shadow-quilted one of the blue "streets" separating the plates. When stretched on the frame with the bottom edge of the "street" less than a quarter inch from the stretcher clips, the intersection lies almost at extreme reach of my arms. I use the "stab" method of quilting rather than a running stitch which means that my left hand always drives the needle up from beneath the fabrics and my right hand stays on top to push the needle down through them. Years of practice have taught my fingers the proper angles to maintain relatively even stitches throughout.

The variation in any quilter's handiwork identifies them, and interestingly enough, I've made some discoveries through my knowledge of what a friend dubs "forensic quilting." Mousie's grandma's Dresden plates seem to have been applied either by two different stitchers or at two different times in its history. Some plates are attached with a less-than-expert whip-stitch. Others were applied with a true applique stitch. Likewise, the fabrics themselves belong to two different eras. For the most part, they are flour/feed sack prints, but the centers and a few of the blades are a more modern calico, distinctly different in weave and dye process than the utilitarian cottons from the sacks. But then the question arises: if a second quilter added the centers at a later date and applied some (but not all) of the plates to their muslin backing, how is it that some of the blades in the plates are made of the same fabric as the centers? Were those blades replacements for some which were damaged or too badly faded? That seems to be the only answer which fits all the evidence. Maybe I'll come up with another idea as I spend the next year or two adding my own stitches to Mousie's heirloom.