I'm all about easy. What attracted me to quilting was the possibility of creating things that did not have to fit a three dimensional shape. I've been sewing since I was 5 years old. The first thing I sewed, with the help of my wonderful Mommy, was a sundress. A cute little blue and white striped a-line sundress with straps that were an inch wide. Perfect for a 5 year old! Just a few years later, I asked Mom about the patch in the straps, and she confessed that while she was showing me how to do it all, with my little hand in hers in the scissors, we had cut a divot in the strap. She pretended it was nothing, and by the time we were ready to sew a seam the next morning, the divot was totally repaired with a patch where the stripes matched so well you'd not even know i was there unless you inspected it closely.
I liked homemade things, but I did not want them to LOOK homemade. I babysat for a woman when I was growing up, who had furnished her house with homemade items. Home sewn calico patchwork bedspreads, curtains, napkins, tablecloths, placemats, pillows. Afghans crocheted in a style familiar to all of us who lived through the 1970s, and macrame plant hangers. Thought my teenaged self admired the effort, but the effect was overwhelming. My parents may have been raising us in a small town, but I fancied myself as being much more fashionable than to drape and clutter up my whole house with calico everything. So I stuck to sewing garments. I did an occasional needlepoint or cross stitch project when I found one that fit my aesthetic.
Two decades full of self-made clothing later, I saw a tumbling blocks quilt. Something about the way a flat piece of fabric could be sewn to show shadow and light, create a graphic that could trick the eye into believing it was three dimensional. How lovely, flat and seemingly easy to make. I figured out how to cut the diamonds by cutting strips first and measuring the diagonal to make multiple diamonds at once. But sewing it required just as many little tricks as sewing a garment, between turning the pieces this way and that to get the Y seam. (It took nearly 30 years for me to finish this one. I quilted it myself for my Dad's 85th birthday a few years ago, a twin-bed sized quilt.)
A few years later, I saw a book about Irish Chains, and that excited me. You see, for the irish chain quilt, you don't cut lots of little squares. No, you cut strips and then sew them together, then slice them crosswise to make a whole line of already-sewn little squares. Change up the colors in each set of sewn strips, and when they're all sliced up and re-combined, they create the larger blocks that make up the irish chain pattern.
Mine is dark red, antique white, and navy blue. Yes, the red and blue were prints... very typically quilty fabric for the late 1980s when it was made. Mainstream modern quilters had not yet moved in the direction of solids and brights, and while I feel a more modern aesthetic, my mother had just visited colonial Williamsburg and I thought a vintage-looking red, white and blue quilt would be kind of fun to have, particularly for the summer... Memorial day, Flag day, Independence day and Labor day could also do well with the patriotic feeling decor, so there you go.
There are two blocks to this quilt pattern, and no Y patterns or curves! One of them is centered on the main background color with a patch of the chain color on each corner, and the other block contains an X made of the chain's colors with a small patch of the background color in the middle of each side. To put the quilt together, you alternate these two blocks like a checkerboard, and the whole chain just magically appears. I find excitement in the magic. The two pieces of magic in this one are the fact that you never have to cut a small square, it's all about the strips. And the second piece of magic in this one is that when the blocks are combined properly they create a pattern that is not obvious when you are just looking at the stack of blocks in front of you. MAGIC!
I'll post later on how to create the two types of blocks (the easy way with strips). But for now, I am just happy to have finished this one. My next pattern is going to be a log cabin. Stips are good for this one also. In my head, I have more ideas for patchwork where the work is in the planning rather than the cutting, and strips and patterns can combine to create different magical patterns.
I love the idea that the magic of this medium can take straight seams and straight cuts, and create an amazing variety of beauty. So for now, I'm exploring the magic.
I'll be posting photos of the double Irish Chain later. I'm having a problem downloading it to my computer right now, but I was just so excited to get it done. I just had to post! HOORAY!!! Tonight, my new summer quilt will be a topper to my winter blanket and quilt combination. 25 years and finally, it's done!
(P.S. Please send me to have my head examined before I start any new king sized quilts. As wonderful as they are, it's tough to finish. I don't have a longarm, I have a hard time entrusting my babies to someone else, so ... for me... at least for now. Art quilts, crib quilts, lap quilts, pillowcases, table runners, placemats, twin quilts... that's probably as far as I can go. For now. I'll save another king sized until AFTER psychiatric intervention.)
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