Hubby says he likes this quilt, doesn’t want me to donate it as I had planned to do. He wants me to hang it on our walls, make our home nice. I need a new story for this quilt. How can I change what I see? How do I disconnect the family stories I felt as I looked at this quilt yesterday? What do I see now?
Double wedding ring pattern. Life going around and around, the connections of our lives.
When I made this it was with friends, with two quilters teaching and helping. I was hesitant about the project requirements – Tula Pink fabrics. I am not a big fan of Tula Pink fabrics – too busy, too bright, the patterns sometimes hurt my eyes. I found two fabrics that were toned down enough that I thought I could work with them. White fabric for a background – also not a fan because our well water turns white to a beigey yellow tinged not-quite-white and not-quite-yellow.
I did the project anyway because it was something I could do with my chosen community. While the others traded fabrics and made bold colourful quilts, I stuck with my muted grayish greens. My fabrics looked dull next to the others and would not have enhanced the others if I had traded mine. Maybe I should have just followed directions when I chose the fabrics? Oh well.
Once I finished the applique part – before I stitched it all down – I saw that there were marks on the white fabric. The marking pen I used did not disappear as it was supposed to! I tried several things but the marks kept coming back. I stitched everything down with the plan to wash it when the applique was secure. If the marks came back my next plan would be to dye it.
Success! The marks were washed away and heat did not cause the marks to return. I carried on.
What to do to make it prettier? I am still not a fan of the muted Tula Pink fabric but it looks ok on the white background. Someone on a Zoom sew day suggested a border of piano keys to make it larger and lessen the impact of the Tula Pink. A piano key border is simply strips of various fabrics sewn together and then cut to the proper length – and that seemed doable. It was also a good way to use up some scraps!
I chose mostly muted colours with a dash of bright green and a splash of white with silver sparkles. And then I added cornerstones of the same Tula Pink fabric and bound it with a coordinating striped Tula Pink fabric. The quilting is loose, a simple echo around the applique pieces, then fluffy clouds to cushion the centre. Big loopy stitches are all over the piano keys, like a handwriting lower case L or E “e”…eeeeee, like “wh-eeeeee”. I like this description better. We have had our share of eeeeees and wh-eeeees in our life together!
What else? I resisted being a stepparent, and it was such a different life – not what I was used to. This applique is a different technique to make the double wedding ring patter – the “easy” way, instead of piecing it. That is kind of like having stepdaughters. I didn’t give birth to them, I didn’t raise them, they came into my life the “easy” way. There was a lot of chaos and discomfort with that lifestyle change. And also a lot of eeeee’s and wheeeees! It was a different path for me to get here, but from a distance it’s hard to tell just how this family came to be.
We have a few piano stories too, but none worth mentioning here.
This is a good quit to hang above our bed now.
