That will be me soon enough, but in the meantime it is time to retire the colourwash squares, liberating another bin and getting a new quilt top done I am using them as leaders and enders for Ty's Tumalo Trail Quilt while working on every quilt that comes up the pipe. It is all win-win-win.
Back when colour wash theory was riding a ground swell of creativity, I embarked on what turned out to be a monumental quilt for my daughter Diana. It was the perfect vortex of creativity/need. Diana was graduating high school, May 2001. My guild, Edmonton and District Quilters' Guild, was doing the millennium 2000 x 2" Square pieces challenge. But I had a full time job, and a part-time job (Returning Officer and the Premier had called an election!!). What to do but make those two challenges into one quilt.
You have to know that between Diana and I, we have this THING about Zebras. When Diana was ~3 years old we were looking at a ABC book, and when we came to the Zed, of course there was a picture of a Zebra. Diana in a squeaky little 3 year old voice said, "that is the ugliest horse I have ever seen". And that was how the association of Diana and Zebras began.
Back to the colourwash (CW) quilt. If I was to make a CW for Diana it had to be about Zebras. But every CW book that I borrowed from the public library or the guild library was about flowers, garden, and birds. At which point older daughter was sitting across the table from me watching me go over books, eliminating one book after another until she happened to see a CW peacock. She advised me to look at it upside down. It was a peacock, with tail at rest and bird looking over its right shoulder. Forget that it was a bird, it was the perfect outline of the continent of Africa. BAM...I knew what I was going to do. Referencing a vegetation (and lack of) map of the continent and that was my colour grid.
The 2000 pieces were not handed out until Jan 19! I was frantic. I sorted them. I cut more, lots more, where there was a colour or a 'reachy' lacking. LOTS more. I bought fabrics that had every kind of African animal on it. Cut those down into 2" squares.
I started sticking them up on the design wall. My sister Marg and niece Carla came for a visit from out of province. They helped put squares up. When I came home from work at the end of the day I would scrutinize and then sew together what we felt was just right. My sister Vera came over and helped to sort and stack for the surrounding 9 patches. It was a huge effort to receive those squares on January 19, and have the quilt FINISHED, with binding, label and hand quilted by April 28...yes in the same year.
The quilt is called, "
For All the Pretty Zebras".
One of the great things about this quilt is that each participant in the 2" square exchange signed a white/light block with their name and those are included on the nine-patches on the left hand side and on the front of the quilt.
This week is my Diana's 32nd birthday. I can barely express the wonderful daughter she is and the amazing mother that she has become...love her to the moon and back.
And this posting is my 100th Blog-aversary.
Love and hugs to you all
Kathy
ps: there are more than 2000 pieces...there are 5618.
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