Archive

So I figured out how to handle the trim around the edges of the quilt for my great grandmother Cassie. I was inspired by the christening gown she made (above) to bring ribbon work into the quilt in some way. I also needed to decide on a book for the quilt. My strongest connection to […]

There are two main parts to quilting: piecing and quilting. So far I’ve just been piecing my “quilts” (which are really just quilt tops – see my earlier post, “A Quilt by any other Name” ) and not actually doing any quilting on them. For this quilt I’m attempting the trapunto technique, which is kind […]

This week has been more printing and reading about and practicing trapunto techniques. All in all a very enjoyable couple of days. I decided on the double wedding ring pattern for the quilt for my great grandmother Cassie. Here is an example of the pattern from the Brooklyn Museum by an unknown maker circa 1930: […]

Pardon the pun, I couldn’t resist. I’ve been hand-sewing on the pineapple medallions that I crocheted. When I started thinking about the quilt for my great-grandmother Grace I asked for input from people from the family that had known her since she died before I was born. My cousin Joanne (Mary’s daughter) remembered her always […]

It’s been a productive if somewhat uneventful week. I finished the square for the dowry quilt from Grace’s quilt. The idea behind the dowry quilt is to take one extra square from each of the quilts and join them together to make a single “Sampler Quilt” that will form my Dowry Quilt.  Sampler quilts were […]

A couple of people have asked if sewing the waxed dipped paper and the encaustic prints causes the sewing machine to gum up. I’ve answered back that, no it doesn’t really but I have to stop from time to time to clean off the footer. After a while sewing I start to feel the footer […]

I’m working more on the individual squares for Grace’s quilt and have pieced a few together. They are sewing together rather nicely, all straightforward geometric pieces. Getting the squares to go together is another thing entirely. It’s always more difficult to get the squares to fit together, they end up being slightly different sizes and […]

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 […]

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 […]

Another fairly unproductive week due to a migraine that wouldn’t respond to my medication. I have a part-time day job so I only have a few dedicated days per week to work on my artwork. When those days are spent curled up in a ball on the sofa with a migraine it is particularly frustrating. […]