#my article

I just released the wikipedia article for Collective Shout into mainspace. It is made by me, a friend and info copied from the Melinda Tankard Reist page.

I’ve been sick for the past week, and have been searching for something low energy to do while my head has been stuffed with goo and I’ve been stuck on the couch. I’ve also recently made it my goal to make all my friends quilts, so I’ve been up to my ears in pattern searching.

The friend who’s quilt I’m currently working on has a classic gothic style with a love for vintage Halloween motifs. He is also the hardest person I have ever shopped for a gift for. Enter: The Coffin Quilt!

(blocks I have finished)

My search was sparked after finding this post on reddit by U/TammyMcgowan

This style of coffin quilt is done with the English paper piecing method, in which you baste a small piece of fabric to a paper form, and then you stitch the pieces together with something like a whip stich or a flat back stich. this was great, however, I already had a rather complex EPP project going in the form of a rainbow Jack’s Chain quilt, so I wasn’t eager to start a new hand project.

I continued sleuthing around the internet for the perfect coffin quilt. Surely there were enough alternative quilters out there for me to find something. I landed on this instructable where user EmilyH172 walks the viewer through making a coffin quilt in a quilt-as-you-go style, where one makes individual mini quilts with top, batting, and backing, and sews those together using a similar stitch to EPP. I love how this quilt came out but again, I just wasn’t in the mood to hand finish an entire other quilt top with my Jack’s Chain so incomplete.

My search continued far and wide, and I finally landed on Destach Co.’s video on youtube and their absolutely wonderful brown and orange lap quilt which puts some festive Halloween prints to good use

Destach uses Jeni Baker’s pattern found here

Baker developed these coffin blocks after looking for the perfect fit for a Buffy the Vampire inspired quilt she was putting together for a friend.

(Isn't this quilt to die for?? You can see the coffin in the upper right quadrant of the quilt)

After redrafting it to fit her decorating vision, Baker reused this motif to make a Halloween themed pillow for her living room chair. She then offered this pattern for free on her blog

This style of block is done with a sewing technique called Foundation Paper Piecing (FPP). FPP is a style of machine piecing that uses a piece of foundation paper and a piece of foundation fabric to start, and uses a stitch-and-flip method of adding more fabric in a way that allows for more precision.

This may the quilt I have been searching for my ungiftable gothic friend!

I had briefly toyed with FPP early during the pandemic but had to put it away due to life circumstance. These days are far less tumultuous for me personally, and I recently unearthed that same forgotten project and have been since been on the lookout for the perfect pattern to get back into the swing of this technique. These coffins plus some truly frightful charm squares I had also dug out of storage fit my needs perfectly. The best part? No hand sewing!

While I was doing the digging on these coffin quilt blocks, I also stumbled into the mention of the Graveyard Quilt.

This Civil War Era mourning quilt displays coffins around the boarders and in the center. These coffins are labeled with the names of quilt creator Elizabeth Roseberry (Mitchell)’s family members. When one of her family members passed away, their coffin was removed from the outside and moved into the center courtyard of the quilt. The Graveyard Quilt is currently in Kentucky Historical Society’s artifact collection, and an unfinished predecessor is believed to reside in the Highlands Museum and Discovery Center in Ashland, Kentucky

I loved this design so much I wanted to dig around to see if there were any modern recreations or renditions. To my delight, there were!

This redesign of the Graveyard Quilt was done by Deidre from https://inarticulatequilter.wordpress.com/ and can be found here [https://inarticulatequilter.wordpress.com/tag/coffin-quilt/] It features a similar design done in a modern purple and grey color scheme and features the names of deceased tv show characters who’s death impacted the artist. Makes me want to do one for some sci fi shows I’ve watched!

Another modern, though much less fandom influenced version is from @/oneiricjustin on TikTok

Here the artist did a slightly different design for their quilt, utilizing pinwheel rail fence blocks and 3d, stuffed coffins instead. I like this quilt a lot because it shows that other patterns can work just as well for mourning quilts as the more intricate designs.

While the quilt that the previous example is inspired by is unique in its construction, mourning quilts were popular all over during the civil war era of the U.S. This tradition is still impactful today, with many people making mourning quilts for various reasons. One that many people are familiar with is the AIDS quilt. You can find an interactive version of the AIDS quilt here

The AIDS quilt is a huge community art project that features panels that measure 3ft x 6ft (or the size of a grave) that have the names of those that have lost their lives to HIV/AIDS embroidered or sewn into them. This quilt contains about 50,000 panels, 110,000 names, and now weighs over 54 tons. This quilt was originally created in fear that the names of those who have passed on due to this disease might not be remembered because of their possible LGBT+ status.

Mourning quilts are still used today to help people process their complex emotions and grief over life events. Another style of mourning quilt frequently found are those quilts which are made from the clothing or personal items of the deceased. These quilts vary enormously in design and style, size, and even shape. Some people will get their loved one’s clothes turned into wall hangings or even quilted teddy bears.

Other mourning quilts are more about contending with life around us. Artist Sabine Heinlein from the Animal Quilter Blog designed and stitched this Egyptian Book of the Dead themed, sleeping bag styled quilt in order to help process feelings brought forth by the raising death toll during the pandemic.

While coffin quilts might not have played as heavily into the human mind as I originally expected when I started this quest, they still play an incredibly important role in the lives of those that do take the time to create them. I know my own coffin quilt will be loved with enthusiasm by it’s recipient, and I hope you will consider making one on your own. See you next time!

Honorable mentions found while searching:

This black and red quilt by user VampiressKitti on DeviantArt

User @/aposematic_arts on tiktok showing EPP sewing in real time on their coffin quilt

happy pride month 🏳️‍🌈

wanna read yet another article about jennifer's body (2009)? i got you covered!

Yes, I tried to write a sequel✨

The inspiration came but I wasn't sure it would be good this time... or even bad💔

Anyway, hope you guys like it!

* A previously written article, all machine translated

* It's the paro in the red cape raven and the wolf cinder

Usually it will return in the early morning ,the sun was still not visible when the sun was above Raven's head. raven was at home carefully polishing the shotgun, then dealing with the prey from the previous days hunting, until nightfall Raven heard the wolf barking from the door, she slowly got up and picked up the collar and went to the door, opened the door and saw the cinder covered in mud and water squatting on the carpet in front of the house.

"I'm home," Cinder saw the door open and tried to squeeze in, but was stopped by Raven. "Put the collar on first."

Cinder reluctantly raised his wolf's head, and raven put the red collar on his furry neck, the name tag hanging from the collar shining in the dim light.

After putting it on raven turned sideways and let the large, dirty wolf step into the also unorganized home. "After the shower you mop up the standing water on the floor yourself." raven looked at the mud marks left by cinder along the way frowned and said, although she would love to let the other side get rid of these paw prints now but the primary goal is to wash each other clean.

raven turned on the shower in the bathtub, aimed at the wolf sitting in the bathtub, in the other body will be wet and then smear the body lotion and then began to frantically scrub. This is a very physically demanding activity raven felt he had to take a shower after washing each other. "You want to wash it yourself next time." After rubbing out a cinder that was covered in foam and snowy white, raven wiped off the sweat on his forehead and said to the cinder. "I'm not very used to bathing with human bodies, no hair touching the water is too strange." The foam pile in the bathtub spit out bubbles and said. After rinsing the bubbles off, he had to wash it again with a smoothing agent, which was actually not very necessary but raven admitted that the wolf was very comfortable to hold after the wash.

"Can I sleep in the bed today?" cinder asked. Cinder asked, "You can sleep." raven responded and turned off the shower in her hand. She got up and walked out of the bathroom, took out a towel and a nightgown from the closet, and when she returned to the bathroom again, the person sitting in the bathtub was not a wolf smelling of shower gel but a naked girl, but the scent was still the same. raven handed the towel to the other party and leaned against the sink, the blatant sight of which made cinder rush to put the towel around her. "Why are you starting to be shy now, I didn't see you like this when I was allowed to help you take a bath." raven lifted one eyebrow and smiled lightly. "It's not the same, of course I'm not afraid of the original hair." Seeing the other party wrapped in a towel without further action raven left the bathroom.

Cinder also quickly dried and put on a nightgown and took the mop handed by raven on the way out of the bathroom.

When raven also finished showering and came out of the bathroom, she saw that her wolf was already lying on the bed. "Finished mopping the floor?" raven lifted the covers and sat on the bed. cinder nodded and closed her eyes. raven looked at his lover who fell asleep almost a second later and turned off the lamp with a sigh.

Do you ever feel uncertain about how you want to publish; or if you want to publish at all? Here's how why you're motivated to write should affect how you plan to publish.

We’re often taught that, if you complete a written work of anything at all, you have exactly two choices ahead of you. Do everything yourself and self-publish, or go big and aim to impress the big names. But you have more options than that in reality! And which option you should take should naturally follow from why you’re aiming to be published in the first place. What do you need to get out of this?

Naturally, the publishing industry as a whole is more complicated than a little article like this can do justice to, but hopefully this list can give uncertain authors some food for thought as to how they want to proceed with their finished story.

So here are some reasons why you might be writing your story — and some publishing paths that may best align with what you want out of the process.