#patchwork quilting

Finally finished my stash buster patchwork quilt top

QUILT # 14 - ADELE’S QUILT, OR DOUBLE WEDDING RING IN BLUES AND GREENS.

Please check my archive for more of my quilts and quilting!

Size: 72” x 94”

Completed: July 17, 1985

Shortly after I completed Sheila’s Quilt #12 (Double Wedding Ring), my sister Adele expressed an interest in the pattern and asked if I could make a similar one for her and her husband. For Christmas 1984 I received five one-yard pieces of coordinated grayed blues as a subtle reminder.

They were lovely fabrics, but the patterns were too close in scale and they were all the same shade; I asked if I could incorporate some greens in liven up what would have been a monochromatic quilt. Since I had done the same pattern a year earlier, I was able to complete the top rather quickly, and set to quilting it ASAP. I did not know it at the time, but this would be the last full-size quilt I would complete.

The picture shows that the rings were made from six different but coordinated blue calicoes. The four squares where the rings overlap a dark green calico and a tan calico with a small green design. The quilt is bound in the green calico as self-made bias tape. The quilting of the pieces is in the ditch; a four-leaved flower in the center of the rings.

My sister Adele developed a terminal illness. For New Year’s 1989, I traveled to see her. She lived in a boathouse on a large river in Oregon. The side of the quilt that faced the large windows in the bedroom was fading from the constant exposure to sunlight. It bothered me that my sister and her quilt were both fading quickly.

On January 10, 1989, Adele died. Within months of her cremation, her husband remarried. I have no idea what has happened to him or her quilt.

Owner: estate of Adele Mangiapane; location and condition unknown.

 Exhibitions & Prizes:

 1985 -  CT Agricultural Fair, Goshen CT – First Prize

           Goshen Fair, Goshen CT – Second Prize

QUILT #6 - HOLE IN THE BARN DOOR

Size: 66” x 78” (approximate), thirty-five 12” squares with 1” strips between them

 Fabrics used: Cotton blends, polyester batting, cotton/poly muslin backing

 Completed: February 1979

Looking at the pictures forty years later, I am surprised at some of the fabric choices, but even at this stage of my quilting development I am still using found scraps and not buying anything other than the batting and the muslin for the backings. I made thirty-five ‘Hole in the Barn Door’ blocks out of blue prints and decided that placing them edge to edge did not ‘look right’ so scrounged around to see what I could do. The 1” strips are dark blue, if I recall correctly. The pieces are outline quilted, with a quilted repeat of the block in the center of each square. It is bound in dark blue bias tape.

Once again, I did not make this quilt with an intention of selling it, but the sister of the buyer for the Maple Leaf quilt saw it and decided that she, too, had to have it.

Owner: Caryl D

Location: Florida

Condition: casualty to Hurricane Charlie, 2004.

PLEASE CHECK MY ARCHIVE FOR MORE QUILTS, QUILTING, WALL HANGINGS, HOOPS, AND PATCHWORK CLOTHING.

 Exhibitions & Prizes:

1979 Bethlehem Fair – Second prize

1979 Mad River Grange Fair – First Prize and Best of Show

 Magazine Pictures and/or Articles:

She watched me come with bright pale eyes, and the closer I got the more clearly I realized how truly venerable this lady was. I said, “Greetings, dachenmaro,” as I came up the porch steps.

It amused her. Her eyes almost disappeared into her wrinkles and she said, “Greetings, othala,” in return. “Come sit beside me, if you don’t disdain to keep an old lady company.” Her voice was hoarse but still firm, and she had a strong Amaleise accent of the sort the comic operas gave to their villains.

“Of course,” I said, and took the chair next to hers.

She showed me her quilt, scraps of fabric pieced together into the pattern called Valmata’s Return. She was now stitching the top and batting and backing together, overlaying Valmata’s Return with a pattern called Scorpion Dance—appropriate to the story of Valmata, who returned from war and poisoned his father in order to take control of the family estates. They sang the ballad in Lohaiso.

It was a great deal of aggression for one quilt, but I judged it wisest not to say so. Instead, I complimented her on her beautiful tiny stitching.”