A very necessary (In)Sanity

Our COVID-19 quarantine isn’t close to being over. And neither is my obsession with miniature quilts, apparently.

I asked my husband to help me sort and put away all the scraps from the previous four I’d made, which he graciously did. But almost immediately (doesn’t the muse always seem to work this way?!) I was digging into my bins for yet one more Lori Smith pattern that I wanted to create: another one with tiny triangles dancing around it.

This particular Lori Smith pattern is interesting in that she designed it with borders only on three sides. Then I remembering seeing a quilt on a large bed (maybe it was during a tour of an historical home in Virginia) with no border at the top because, it was explained, pillows would hide the top of the quilt anyway, and in this way fabric (not to mention effort and time) was not wasted. Perhaps this is what Lori Smith had in mind when she wrote up the pattern for this little miniature with the Sawtooth borders around each 3″ Pinwheel block.

Soon I was cutting 1 7/8″ squares into two triangles again and thinking to myself, Lori Smith is insane! (Or she’ll make us quilters insane trying our best to create her quilts.) But I kept on because I wanted the finished product. And because … well, what else is there to do in this time of quarantine?

Actually, this intense focus — these ridiculously small pieces; this insanity — is exactly what I need to keep my own sanity!

To make such tiny triangles work (i.e. not be completely lumpy with the seams underneath and stretched out of proportion) I’ve learned you HAVE to press all the seams open. Which I dutifully did. I even took pictures of the open seams, just to show what the innards of a quilt can look like. Then to control and tame the whole 16″ X 20″ finished quilt I got out Mary Ellen’s Best Press and used it liberally with my hot iron. Since quilt shops are closed I am having to scrounge my stash for appropriate colors, batting pieces and backings.  And I was pleased with the lovely little zigzag stitch my sewing machine performed to join two lengths of batting to give me the width I needed for it.

Making scrappy quilts such as these is also the perfect time and place to use up the ‘ugly’ fabrics you never cared much for but somehow have found a home in your collection. And what a pleasure to observe how the less-favored ones are made beautiful by being put next to the lovelier, more-valued fabrics.

When I was done I wasn’t ready quite yet to ask my husband to help me put all the tiny scraps away again, though. Since I seem to have fallen back in love with the 1800 Reproduction prints, I wanted to play with them more.  One evening a random internet image search of the Courthouse Steps pattern (a variation of Log Cabin) produced an image of guess what? Lori Smith’s very scrappy interpretation. I almost swooned. Within minutes I was at my sewing machine again and could hardly sleep that night for the excitement.

I decided to hand quilt this one. (The book in the corner is to show what my husband does during quarantine. He finished this 1400+ page novel in about 11 days! He said he enjoyed it as much the second time as when he first read it more than 25 yrs ago.)

But when I was finished with this mini (and because there were still enticing piles of strips left on my sewing table) I came up with the idea of making a set of  placemats. Each one is different in terms of color use, but all are united by a center red square, straight-line quilting and finished with a blue binding. The backs of each of the six placemats are all different. When I finished each one it became my ‘favorite’ … until the next one was finished! And I’m happy to report I’ve made quite a good-size dent in my stash.

Along with some great music by Josh Ritter (thanks to my son), John Prine, (may he rest in peace) as well as Schumann, Mozart and Bach, we are quarantining well. But our hearts break for those who are truly suffering and we pray for an end soon.

What are you doing to stay healthy and survive this strange time?