2021
54" x 54"
How to take a picture of a quilt: 1. Find a good spot - I’ll take a picture of my new quilt over the TV in the back room. 2. Oh but the TV is in the way 3. Does that TV even work? 4. The remote must be in the cabinets 5. Can’t find the remote 6. I’ll clean out the cabinets 7. What to do with old CDs with family pics if they are all on Shutterfly? 8. Who needs nine decks of playing cards? 9. We never play these old board games 10. SO much cat spray everywhere ;/ 11. Clean up the TV even though you found the remote and it doesn’t work. 12. Call Fred to clean out his old junk in the cabinets 13. Good old Fred offers vacuuming and cleaning help. 14. But the heating baseboards are rusted and disgusting. 15. Go to Walmart to buy steel wool and spray paint. 16. Remove baseboards for heating project. 17. Find first family portrait and get all weepy. Look at the chaos of 35 years of accumulation in one small corner of your house and get even weepier. 18. Be thankful Hayley is home to go through old music books (Please, Hayley???) 19. Desire a completely new home half the size of this one that is completely empty of stuff and cats (Fred can come.) 20. Take picture of new quilt “Farm Life” that uses vintage embroidered penny squares and vintage floral fabric 21. Anyone need a deck of playing cards?
"Farm Life" uses embroidered penny squares inherited through Fred's family. They were set in a lackluster summer quilt top that liberally employed ruffles and was left unfinished, so I took a deep breath and liberated them from that project. The penny squares are beautifully accomplished, but why oh why did the sewer choose yellow thread for an unbleached muslin background? The farm scenes are charming but are very hard to see. I set them in a traditional hour glass arrangement, and then quilted densely around the perimeter of each embroidered scene, hoping to enhance the embroidery. They are still difficult to see unless you study them up close. Oh, well, at least it no longer has ruffles...
