Bears in the Cornpatch
Well, I've finally settled on what I'm going to make Chive for his 50th birthday next year. Something like this:
I've always been charmed by the Bear's Paw block, and combined with the alternating chain blocks, I find it irresistable. He says he likes the colours in this quilt, the greyed navy and sage with gold. So in the new year I'll start gathering up my bits and pieces for a HUGE birthday quilt for my beloved. It'll end up being approximately 90"X110", more than big enough for his bed. What we have now is rather embarrassing, especially since I'm a quilter and all - just a lumpy duvet with a cover that's beginning to shred where I tried safety-pinning it to keep it from shifting all the time.
I love this lap quilt. The centre block patterns were from The Simple Joys of Quilting, but I added the borders and cornerstone blocks to enlarge it. Not all my points are sharp, but why should that be surprising? Or even desirable...? The light sage is a William Morris print that I've had for years, waiting for the right project to leap up at me.
I think I would have cast myself body and soul at William Morris' feet if I'd been so unfortunate as to have had the opportunity. I love his patterns and philosophy. Didn't work out so well in practice, of course, it rarely does. Sad. Of course, maybe he wasn't so magnetic as I imagine he was and I would have shunned to run away to the Northlands with him and run my fingers through his beard.
I love the sombreness of the colours, it makes me think of traditional Mennonite quilts.
I meander quilted most of it, but the dark navy borders got stitch-in-the-ditch, and the chain lines were straight-quilted through the centres. I used the darning foot to do the paw-points, too, and that was a new challenge. Moving freehand in a straight line is tough! I also made kind of a stylized leaf in the centre of each paw square, outline-quilted it, and then squiggled quilted the inside. Hand-tacked the binding, of course. I've been wondering lately if I ought to also machine-sew that for durability, but it certainly doesn't look as nice that way. Approximately 52"X62".
And the back:
I've always been charmed by the Bear's Paw block, and combined with the alternating chain blocks, I find it irresistable. He says he likes the colours in this quilt, the greyed navy and sage with gold. So in the new year I'll start gathering up my bits and pieces for a HUGE birthday quilt for my beloved. It'll end up being approximately 90"X110", more than big enough for his bed. What we have now is rather embarrassing, especially since I'm a quilter and all - just a lumpy duvet with a cover that's beginning to shred where I tried safety-pinning it to keep it from shifting all the time.
I love this lap quilt. The centre block patterns were from The Simple Joys of Quilting, but I added the borders and cornerstone blocks to enlarge it. Not all my points are sharp, but why should that be surprising? Or even desirable...? The light sage is a William Morris print that I've had for years, waiting for the right project to leap up at me.
I think I would have cast myself body and soul at William Morris' feet if I'd been so unfortunate as to have had the opportunity. I love his patterns and philosophy. Didn't work out so well in practice, of course, it rarely does. Sad. Of course, maybe he wasn't so magnetic as I imagine he was and I would have shunned to run away to the Northlands with him and run my fingers through his beard.
I love the sombreness of the colours, it makes me think of traditional Mennonite quilts.
I meander quilted most of it, but the dark navy borders got stitch-in-the-ditch, and the chain lines were straight-quilted through the centres. I used the darning foot to do the paw-points, too, and that was a new challenge. Moving freehand in a straight line is tough! I also made kind of a stylized leaf in the centre of each paw square, outline-quilted it, and then squiggled quilted the inside. Hand-tacked the binding, of course. I've been wondering lately if I ought to also machine-sew that for durability, but it certainly doesn't look as nice that way. Approximately 52"X62".
And the back:
Corn and grain, corn and grain
What falls to earth shall rise again
Hoof and horn, hoof and horn
Whatever dies shall be reborn.
What falls to earth shall rise again
Hoof and horn, hoof and horn
Whatever dies shall be reborn.
posted by Madcap at 1:58 PM
8 Comments:
I'm in love with that quilt, too. He should be delighted when you finish.
My favorite William Morris quote is "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." I don't abide by it, but I love it and wish I could.
As always, I'm blown away. It's beautiful! (Points, schmoints.)
Oh Madcap, I do love that Bear Paw in Chains :) quilt! LOvely colors and that pattern is just perfect. I'm going to make me one one of these days! :)
Hi - I found your blog through Free Range Living (Cheryl). As a quilter myself, I have to say that your bear paw makes me envious. In all these years, I have not made a Bear Paw - going down to the stash today to see what I can pull together! Lovely quilting too.
Madcap, this is AWESOME. I'm coming back when I have more time to spend drooling and reading.
Think I forgot that 'Kotton Frolik' was you, but came here via comments from the last post on your other blog. Amazing, Madcap, amazing...
Makes me feel so under-productive. And I am.
Beautiful, Madcap, beautiful!
Well, I've made it through your July Archives and left a few messages there for you. I would love to leave a comment for each post, but they'd all end up saying basically the same thing... "AWESOME". Now off to do a few critter feeding chores, then to bed with me. Tomorrow I start the August Archives as I can fit it in between other things I actually HAVE to do, lol.
That is a really pretty lap quilt. I think it would be great to make a matching one for a bed.
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