Getting Closer to a Whole Quilt

   

       Sometime in the late 60's or early 70's, after the 31 yellow blocks were put away and forgotten (out of sight, out of mind) I decided that I wanted to try again.  I was determined to make a quilt from start to finish. This one was going to be for me and the colors would go nicely with the color scheme of my bedroom.
      I don't know where the pattern came from.  It sure wasn't out of a beginner's quilt magazine.  I do know that acrylic templates and rotary cutters were not part of the project.  And I sure didn't do myself any favors about achieving my goal of completing a quilt.  Not only were there 16 pieces to each block, but there were also set-in seams AND curved seams.  If history was any indication, my interest would surely fade long before the last stitch was completed.  And it did.
      It is now 2013 and I recently pulled the quilt from my Grandmother's old hope chest that sits in my guest bedroom.  It was right there tucked in the chest along with 31 yellow star blocks.  The top is completed (all by hand) and it has been basted to the backing.  I even started the hand quilting.  It's about a third of the way through. This project is the closest to being a completed quilt I had come so far.
      I may not remember starting this project, but when I look at the quilt it brings back a vision.  I'm sitting on the front porch of the Limekiln Lake summer house with this big maroon quilt on my lap quilting away and chatting with my mother-in-law.  I guess that's where I did most of the work on the quilt.  Unfortunately, I no longer have a room in my house with that color scheme.  But  when, not if, I get this one done it would look very nice on my bed at the lake house where it has already spent so many summers.

The Almost-a-Quilt of Good Intentions

       I have been enrolled in an ongoing quilt class at Cottonpickers', my local quilt shop.  The class is called "Marti and Me".  As a member of the class, each month I am taught new quilting techniques and how to use the Marti Mitchell acrylic templates.  Since I've been enrolled for a number of months I've accumulated quite a few sets of templates to go with my ever-growing collection of acrylic quilting rulers.  These calibrated pieces of plastic make the quilting of intricate designs so easy.  And one of the goals is do execute the design without any set-in seams.
      As I was sitting at my sewing table the other night, completing an assignment for my next class, and surrounded by a pile of acrylic templates, I thought of Aunt Tillie and Grandma.  Boy would they have been amazed to see the tools I was using.  They probably wouldn't have bought them for themselves because templates cost money. But all the same, they would have been amazed.  And I could say the same for the rotary cutter.  These are tools I use everyday.  But when I first learned to quilt they weren't even around.
      II remember a number of years ago I  wanted to make a quilt that was more intrcate than my eggplant quilts.  I decided that my quilt should be just like one of Aunt Tillie's quilt.  I had every confidence that I accomplish this goal!!  I would change the design just a little from one she had made me.

        This is how the block was designed to turn out. The fabric would be a coordinating solid and print with a lemon yellow background.  There were 24 pieces to each block and they were shaped using 3 cardboard templates and cut with dressmaking shears.  I remember tracing and cutting every piece individually.

      As I recall, the center, six-point star was fairly easy.  All straight seams.  It was the spokes around the star that were difficult because it was loaded with set-in seams (the place where three pieces come together).    

   Now, this is where I should display a picture of the finished quilt.  But Alas!!  That's as far as my good intentions got.  Today I have a nice little pile of THIRTY-ONE completed blocks ready to put together.  Why didn't I ever finish it?  Probably for the same reason I have 7 quilt tops hanging in my closet ready to be put together.  

You know, it would make a really pretty quilt.  I should finish it. 

I wonder how Marti Mitchell would construct this block?