Got back to working on Grace’s quilt this week. I managed to pick a ridiculously muggy day to dip the cut up book pages. Nothing like standing over an electric wok full of melted encaustic medium for a few hours on a nice humid summer day on the coast of Maine.

Something I hadn’t anticipated with Grace’s quilt was the added bonus of the center signature pieces for each of Grace’s children that my mother wrote out for me. I didn’t know Grace but I knew all of her children well. Most of her children stayed in Veazie, within a stone’s throw of the house they all grew up in, the house I grew up in. It was like growing up with extra grandparents As I work on the quilt I find myself thinking not just about Grace but about each of them as well.

I started working today on the square for Bill, Grace’s firstborn. Bill moved far away, all the way to Kittery ME.   But like all the family he came home for family events and holidays. He was a woodsman and a great hunter. There is nothing like growing up in a family of hunters to turn one into a vegetarian (though I am grateful for all the meals he and others provided me over the years). Bill was a bit of an enigma, he always seemed a little sad to me. He never married; his love had married another.

I managed to run out of black thread part of the way through. Need to go on a JoAnn’s run (always dangerous). So I decided to lay out the partially finished square to see how the pineapple medallions would fit:

Bill’s square in Grace’s quilt; encaustic monotypes, book pages, encaustic, machine sewing, crocheting (in process)

Looks like three a side will do it. Now I need to decide two things:

1. Do I dip the crocheted medallions in wax to give them some strength/stability or leave them as is and let them flop?
2. Do I put the medallions across the top and have them hang down over the face of the quilt? (not so much of an issue if I decide to dip the medallions)

If you have an opinion on either of these issues please leave a comment on the blog or on FB.