Shall be like a tree …

The opening verses of Psalm 1 are some that I still have memorized from childhood (when we had to memorize scripture and write a letter home to our parents before getting our afternoon tea in boarding school) and when I stretch in the morning with the yoga Tree pose, I say verse 3 to myself as both a prayer and an aspiration.

I also love to look at and read about old quilts, especially medallion quilts, where the quiltmaker starts with a center medallion, which makes a strong statement of theme and color. Often the medallions are an elaborately appliquéd block to show off the sewing skills of the quilter. Surrounding the center focal point, the quilter then adds a series of borders, or frames, each one a different patchwork design.  

But one of the really interesting, even shocking, things I’ve learned from reading about these old quilts is that sometimes the quiltmaker, to get the various patchwork frames to fit, would simply lop off the design where needed, and then carry on with the next design element. What?! This practice would never win anyone a prize at a quilt show, but yet these quilts hang in museums and show up in books as historical artifacts of practicality, ingenuity and boldness.

I’d been wanting to try my hand at a medallion but since I have never learned to enjoy doing appliqué, I thought I’d start with a tree block I’d made recently. When I was done with it I had said, “Boy, I’m never making another one of these again!” and put the block away, well out of sight.  But having Psalm 1 on my mind, I dug it out and decided to start with it as my simple statement, and then just add fun blocks around the tree, creating my own medallion quilt and letting it grow organically, using other discarded (and sometimes completely forgotten about!) patchwork I’d made months, even years, before.

The last frame (border) is a set of Nine-Patch blocks I discovered at the very bottom of a bin while hunting for something else. (A bad habit of mine: putting things away that either I think I don’t like or get bored with. I had truly forgotten about these!)

Anyhow, I finally got the quilt finished this summer, even crazily cutting down some of the final blocks to fit the rest of the quilt, taking courage from quilt makers of a hundred years ago!  I took it to the longarmer last month and I do like the final result, despite all the fits and starts. Despite all my sighs & groans, and the weird math that I had to “fix” with scissors. 

My favorite parts of the quilt are the places I substituted similarly hued half square triangles for a 2 inch square, or 4 one inch squares to create a 2 inch square. These smaller pieces were lying close to my sewing machine, leftover from the series of miniatures I made this spring. Sneaking them in felt both rebellious and playful.

Most of the fabric is from 1800’s Reproductions. I love to look at the sometimes outlandish colors and designs they created back then. I especially adore the purple bees (or are they flies?!) on a cream background. The corner stars are from a Kathleen Tracy pattern.  The backing is a lovely William Morris print from the quilt shop I am lucky enough to be working at these days. Which, actually, is where all the other fabrics came from as well. 

The most accurate photo in terms of color is the one taken by a colleague at the quilt shop. We just  laid the quilt down on the classroom floor, so the feet and legs of furniture and a human (me) are visible on the perimeter. The stuff of real life, right?! After she took the picture she (jokingly, I’m sure) asked if I’d written up the pattern. I laughed and laughed. (If I ever had to write up a pattern the title and text would be How NOT To Make a Quilt!)   

Someday I might count all the pieces it took to make this quilt. A few thousand, I’m sure. Nah, I won’t do that. Why take the time? (I do know that it took an hour just to give a final press to all the seams with Mary Ellen’s Best Press before taking it to the quilter.)

Besides, I’ve already got an idea for a second medallion, starting with another set of forgotten 10″ Sawtooth Star blocks I unearthed when I unearthed the Nine-Patches. And so it goes! I’m off to the races again. That, after a recent funk, feels great.