The good thing about feeling poorly the last week or so is it has given me a chance to reassess the project and do some planning. I had planned from the start to make a total of nine memorial quilts. This is largely because I am making an extra square for each to join together in a sampler quilt, call it my ‘dowry quilt’, to represent how each of these women contributed something towards my making. 9, besides having good feng shui, is the common number of squares in a crib quilt and in most quilts designed to hang on walls. I have decided that I want each of the remaining quilts to be technically different in some way so that I can explore the world of quiltmaking as I go. This further complicates the project but I believe it will help keep me engaged throughout the project.

I am a very visual person. I have always “seen” my work in my head before I actually create it. I used this time to think ahead about each person on list, what they meant to me, and what their quilt would look like.  I wasn’t able to fully see them all but here is what I sketched out:

• Nan Hodgman, my great grandmother: a monochrome quilt (pattern tbd) with ribbon work inspired by the christening gown she made for my grandfather; utilizing pages from an old Sears and Roebucks Catalog
• Elsie Jordan Bogart, my great aunt: a red and white quilt (pattern tbd); utilizing newspaper clippings of her
• Mary Jordan Parks, my great aunt: a kaleidoscope quilt (?); utilizing photos of her, book tbd
• Elizabeth (Lib) Turner, my great-great aunt: a trapunto bumble bee quilt based on a quilt made by Elizabeth in my collection; utilizing infants knitting and crocheting patterns
• Norma Hodgman Clifford, my great aunt: a crazy quilt; utilizing pages from Monona Rossol’s “The Artist’s Complete Health and Safety Guide”

This week I also had a bit of time to do some printing with my new stencils created from the David A. Clark workshop that I attended at the International Encaustic Conference. With that I finally settled on the prints for Grace’s quilt and cut out the final print pieces to complete that portion of the layout for her blocks:

Set up sheet for Grace’s quilt

Still to go for her quilt: the ripping up of the “Midwive’s Tale” book and the cutting and dipping of the pages and several dozen more pineapple medallions to crochet. Oh yeah, and the sewing it all together part.