Monday, August 29, 2022

Lucy and Chase's Wedding Quilt

 Always a story.  

Coming out of winter, the local quilt club offered a shop hop bus tour in April.  

It was a good day. 
  Someone else drove. 
  Someone else planned the stops.
  It gave me hope the craft table would once again be free of vegetable seedlings.
  It included a stop near my beloved older sister.  The first time we visited after the Wisconsin winter.
All good.

This Blog is a history of the resulting wedding quilt to date.  

I had seen the Great Lakes quilt print.  It reminded me of my grandpa Adam who spent most of his work life keeping the engines on great lakes car ferries running.  It caught my attention in the past.  I saw it again on the shop hop and bought it.  Now I needed a use for it.  

My youngest niece, Lucy was given an engagement ring over the 2021 Christmas holidays.  Lucy has a heritage with an interesting history.  Why not use that as a starting point for her wedding quilt.

The Great Lakes print measured out at ~ 23" X 23".  That meant the other patches would have to adapt to the print.  The 1001 patchwork patterns book was pulled from the shelf and research ensued.  Then drafting.  Then pulling scraps from my stash.  Then sewing.  It is hard to coordinate different patch patterns to end the same with the same final dimension.   Different widths of lattice were added to some of the patches to bring a consistent 25" X 25" finished patch size.  Whew!!!

Of course, why not add a hard deadline of the Marinette County fair to the project.

I don't know why the note on the judging ticket mentioned my need to improve the miters on the quilt corners....  They were finished the night before the fair drop off....  A hard press would have fixed the issue.  
   DYK I spent hours picking out and resewing stitches to get precise points on 3 types of triangles? 
   DYK I spent hours keeping the grainlines true? 
   DYK I constructed the only Wisconsin state patch, ever?  Guaranteed designed by a stoned math major, hallucinating fractals. 
  DYK the quilt is hand tied with variegated crochet cotton to leave the precision points exposed for judging? 

But.. crisp points on quilt corners through 15 layers of fabric tickled this judge's funny bone. 

12 patches were arranged 3 by 4 rows.   It is ~ 75" X 100".  It took two photos to show it below.






Yes, this is a blue ribbon from the 2022 Marinette county fair.  The lot entered was patched quilt.


Row one.


This is 4 blocks of Scotts Plaid. Trace this to her paternal great-great grandpa Scott. 
The fabric is from my scrap stash.  The plaid and border fabric was purchased at a Florence Eisemann fabric sale. I think the calico was thrifted.  


This is 4 blocks of Ohio star.  Her maternal grandpa Don was from there.  Then he moved to Huntsville, Alabama after WWII and raised his family.
The lime green was a goody bag fat quarter handed out on the shop hop.


This is the bane of my existence.  4 patches of Wisconsin Star.   Lucy's dad is a dam Yankee from Wisconsin.
The fabrics came from a quilting friend who was selling off her stash, a purge from someone's elderly aunt and the red was a new purchase. The patch was published with the bicentennial and did not catch on.  I wonder why..... Isosceles, equilateral and isosceles right triangles.   
It is a pretty patch.  But a bugger to construct.

Row 2


This is the print that inspired this wedding quilt.  



Lucy's mom is a Southern Belle.  This is 4 patches with fabric from another quilter's stash sale.



4 patches of Dutch Puzzle.  Maternal grandma was a WWII war bride.  Kate shared with me how she was working in a boarding house in Holland.  The US soldiers were not allowed to marry the local women while still in the service.  Don was released from his military service, then returned to Holland to find his beloved Kate and bring her back to the US.
The fabric is from my stash with the yellow print from a deconstructed curtain valance.

Row 3


Lucy and Chase grew up in Alabama.  This is my take on the Alabama patch... expanded to fit 25" X 25".  I call it Alabama 2022.
The fabric is from my stash.


4 repeats of Chinese Puzzle.  In my father's papers we found a copy of the naturalization certificate from late 1800s of Lucy's great-great grandpa giving up his allegiance to the emperor of China. 
The fabric used came from my stash.  The yellow is from a dress I made for Lucy's great grandma Ethel.


4 repeats of sailboat.  Back to Adam on the great lakes.  Odd as it seems... I do not know if he could swim.

Row 4 

Paternal great grandpa Barney spent WWII working on the Panama Canal.  There were no quilt patches for the Panama Canal.  This repeat of 4 came from an embroidered patch worn by the workers on the canal during WWII.  The gold and red were the colors used on the patch.
Both the fabrics used were purchased for this quilt block.


Great great grandma Elizabeth Scott (Landt) was traced back to her family landing in Plymouth in 1640.  Who knew.  Of course, English Ivy was required for this quilt.
The fabric came from a combination of my stash, thrifted and newly purchased.







This is 4 repeats of Northern Lights.  In Northern Wisconsin, Aurora Borealis can be seen in the winter.    
The fabrics are that deconstructed valance also used in the Dutch Puzzle patch, gingham used in her cousin's baby dress and Florence Eisemann fabric.



P.S.:  My heart goes pitter pat when I visit homes and see my work in use.  I've seen too many beautiful textiles from decades ago that were too nice to use for sale, donated to a thrift shop after the parents passed.    



Monday, July 18, 2022

Starlink After 16 Months

 December 21, 2020 we closed on the house where we raised our children.  We moved to north east Wisconsin.  5 miles from the village.  Line of sight cell phone towers. ...  

The last week of June 2022 Starlink was delivered and my fingers are now at a full sized keyboard in our home... Not sitting in the truck at the McDonald's 15 mile away, doing the one finger cell phone dance.

Sooooo  happy!  

Note the ducks flying over our former garage.


The photo is of our new property painted onto a gifted floor cloth.


This posting is a trial balloon before I begin posting the year and a half photos of our retirement adventure.