Wordless Wednesday

Red Wing

Here's a quilt story that Lucy the Westie and Boris the cat insisted on helping to tell. What is it about pets and quilts? A quilt is like a pet magnet, isn't it?

The whole issue of copyright has been discussed again and again, sometimes to the point (to my mind) of ridiculousness (I buy a pattern and am only allowed to make something from it ONCE?? Beg to differ…) I usually avoid the issue by not buying patterns, and not making quilts from patterns. Most of my work is my own. I see things that inspire me, I decide I want to use a particular block, and then I draft my quilt myself.

I do a lot of futzing in Electric Quilt. (And you know how that goes… Sometimes the virtual quilt is enough; I realize I don’t NEED to make that particular quilt, and the project never goes any further…) When I see quilts that I want to make, I usually change things around pretty significantly.

Usually.

Back in February, I was at Primitive Gatherings in Menasha, WI, with several friends. I saw a quilt on display there that really spoke to me. The block was kind of like a Churn Dash, but with squares instead of corner triangles.

They were selling it kitted, but I didn't have a spare $150 on me. I made a mental note of the quilt, came home, thought about it, and thought about it some more.

I drafted it the block in Electric Quilt and decided it would be the perfect quick piecing project for an upcoming retreat. I stopped on the way to the retreat and bought 4 yards of cheddar fabric for alternate blocks, and got the WHOLE thing cut and put together during the retreat. Nothing like coming home with an entire pieced quilt top—the thought of that quilt made the entire icy-road-five-hour drive home bearable.

But I was having some guilt pangs. I had made the quilt EXACTLY like the one I’d seen at Primitive Gatherings. It was someone else’s design. And that someone else had marketed a pattern for this quilt. Had I undercut that process? Like I said, some quilt copyright issues seem like a stretch to me. But this seemed pretty clear cut. I was in this designer’s debt.

As luck would have it, one of my friends was suffering from reverse buyer’s remorse—upset about something she HADN’T bought on our February trip to Primitive Gatherings. So we made another trek to Menasha in early March. (It’s a two hour drive each way, but SO worth it, even in the snow, and even with the price of gas today. Yeah, we're all crazy, aren't we?)

It was my chance to buy a copy of the pattern; and give credit where credit is due—to the designer and to the shop. My conscience feels better. It’s a wonderful quilt.

This is a really simple quilt but it pleases me soooo much. Love the 19^th century look, right down to the backing.

The details:

My name for the quilt: Red Wing
The pattern: Lydia by Bonnie Blue Quilts
Finished size: 74 X 88"
Fabrics: 100% cotton
The batting: Warm and Natural
Long-arm quilting by the amazing Marge West
Begun February 16, 2011
Completed March 24, 2011

Gray Days

Those of us in Wisconsin have been pretty much in a perpetual state of open-mouthed dumfoundedness the last few weeks, as our governor has plowed into his first term with one sweeping action after another, all in the name of budget-balancing. I've been saddened by the unpleasantness of the whole process--there have been some very tough days for those of us who had been proud of Wisconsin as a bastion of progressive ideals and cooperative ways of getting business done.

The saddest things of all have been the attempts to pit one group of citizens against other groups. I'm a public employee--a very low-paid one--and it's been sad and painful to watch public workers such as myself painted with a very broad brush as thieves and parasites.

I've been quiet, not wanting to post extended political rants here, but too dispirited to post much of anything else.

But life goes on. Sewing and knitting has been happening.

A scarf has been knit. Pictures to come.

There was a retreat in mid-February that yielded a whole quilt top that's all quilted and currently being bound--pictures to come soon. And work is ongoing on the Braid Quilt. What a pile of chaos!

I'm currently assembling strips, which has to be the absolute definition of tedious sewing.

I was concerned with handling all that bias. But it isn't causing much of a problem. I'm pressing and starching each strip. And heaven help me--I know no other way to sew than to at least make an attempt at matching all those seams.

Slow going.

It's coming, but slowly.