Closet Archaeology

Day 319: I pride myself on not having the crafter's usual surfeit of UFOs (UnFinished Objects) other than those currently in progress. However, occasionally something will relocate itself to the back of the queue. There's usually a good reason. Perhaps I needed something which was out of stock or backordered, or maybe I couldn't find exactly the right colour, so I laid the project aside until I had all the necessities in hand. In the case of this quilt, I hadn't figured out how I wanted to finish it. Did I want to join the blocks with "streets and alleys?" If so, did I want to go with another orange, or try to match the yellow? Other quilts came and went...close to a dozen, if the truth be told...and twenty finished blocks of Dresden Plate moved from a quilting box to the trunk in the closet, "trunk-ated" until recently when I was looking for something else and came across them.

This quilt's history goes back a long ways. I started collecting orange fabrics for it over forty years ago. Orange has never been particularly popular with most people and therefore was hard to find other than at Hallowe'en. I wanted to steer clear of the spooky-themed prints (Hallowe'en is not my favourite holiday). Orange prints began surfacing in greater number during the 1990s, and a lot of these fabrics came from that period. Evenutally, I had enough to make my long-awaited orange/autumn quilt. I machine-pieced the "plates" and then appliqued them to brown squares, the usual method of construction for this design. And then...well, I went through some difficult times and the quilt was forgotten.

That said, I am now under a geas to put my UFOs to rest. That's not to say I won't be working on other projects simultaneously, but it's time to get some older ones out of the way. This morning, I sewed together four sets of five Dresden Plates before deciding I'd put in enough time at the sewing machine for one day. I'll zip the remaining seams together tomorrow and then I'll be faced with a new problem, i.e., where to find backing fabric without going to Cult Corner. One thing is certain: the quilting frame is going to get hard use this winter!

Blackwork Off My Plate

Day 279: Tucked into a bookshelf where I only remembered it when I was getting out a new volume of sudoku puzzles, the blackwork Dresden plate I started some four years ago wasn't getting much attention. It was nearly finished when I stowed it there (I think because I had guests coming and did some quick tidying), but for some reason, I just wasn't getting back to it. Finding it again a few days ago, I decided to remedy the situation. For those of you unfamiliar with this style of needlework, it's similar to counted cross-stitch in that it is usually worked on counted-thread canvas (not always, but it's easier). Geometric designs are often shaded from dark to light by gradually omitting some of the stitches, as can be seen in the blades just right of noon and and those appearing in every fourth unit around the clock here. The possibilities for variation make blackwork visually rich despite being monochromatic. The blackwork plate is now off my plate, waiting to be mounted in its frame to match a companion piece (a maze).

Dresden Orange

Day 277: With our plans for a Sisters-of-the-Heart Quilting Bee disrupted by the pandemic, I found myself getting too far along on Mousie's grandmother's Dresden plate quilt, so to ensure that we have enough to do when it becomes possible for them to come for a visit, I laid it aside and picked up where I left off piecing my own version of Dresden plate. My desire to make an orange quilt date back at least forty years. At one time, I had an appreciable stash of orange-themed prints set aside, but later disposed of them when I thought my quilting days were done. Oh, yes, I've kicked myself many times for that foolish move, believe me! A couple of years ago, the idea resurfaced and I began accumulating appropriate fabrics, although at the time, I hadn't settled on a design. Eventually, a twenty-blade Dresden plate won the toss, although Memory Wreath (one of my favourite patterns) was running a close second. I decided on a chocolate-brown base fabric for the blocks to give the whole quilt an autumnal feel, with yellow centers in the plates, perhaps repeating as "streets and alleys" between the blocks. Today, I will be piecing the last two plates, leaving four to be appliqued to the base fabric. As for the "streets and alleys," well, it looks like this project will also have to go on hold until COVID leaves the building. Not to worry! There's always a Plan B in any experienced crafter's closet.

How To Tame A Pink Elephant

Day 16: How do you tame a pink elephant? That was the question I was asking myself with respect to Mousie's grandma's vintage and pink-heavy flour-sack quilt. We'd already decided that I'd need to cut it apart due to errors in spacing, but I specifically didn't want to undo any of her grandma's stitching, although there were a few places which asked for expert repair. The solution came to me in my sleep several nights ago: frame blocks with "streets and alleys." But what colour? Mouse expressed a preference for blue, so with that in mind, I bought two fabrics. This morning, I dove into the project with a will and when I finally allowed myself a much-needed break from sewing, I had over half of sixteen plates reassembled. Further plans include wide borders of the lighter blue (it's a bit greyer than it looks in the photo, and the muslin is natural, not white). Hand-quilted designs on the borders will allow me to put my skill alongside grandma's, eventually creating an heirloom Mousie can use with joy. She tells the story best in her words of thanks: "I cannot tell you how moved I am that you are undertaking this project - my grandmother died before I was born. She is a face in a picture - your work is making her alive for me." As legacies go, I could do worse.

Sunflower Season Dresden Plate

Day 340: For some reason, I'm on a quilting jag. I have one row to go on a fully machine-made Cathedral Window before I can start setting cats in the "windows," so in the interest of keeping the spirit alive, I made a sample Dresden Plate block using blue scraps. I was so pleased with the way it turned out that I decided the time had arrived: at long last, I'd sew the orange quilt I've been threatening to make since the 1970s.

Now it has to be said that when I start assembling quilt blocks, I find it much more difficult to keep the placement of the pieces random than setting them in order. Ironically, it is that very randomness that I find most appealing in quilts. I spent a lot of time sick when I was a kid, usually nursing a sore throat and a fever beneath the Double Wedding Ring quilt my great-grandmother made as a wedding gift for my mom and dad. She'd pieced it from cotton flour sacks. I would amuse myself by "walking" the Double Wedding Ring path with my fingers, attempting to find two or more pieces of the same print. Most of the time, it was easy, but there were one or two prints which had only been used for a single wedge. Those were my treasures, those singletons, and by the time I'd recovered from one malaise only to come down with another, I'd have forgotten exactly which ones they were, and the process of finding them could start all over again.

While there won't be any singles in my "Sunflower Season" Dresden Plate quilt, I am still striving for randomness. It's easy to build an ordered universe, not quite so simple to create a chaotic one.