Crazy Little Conversations

Crazy Little Conversations In The Attic ~ 39" X 57" ~ 1998

Nancy, who blogs near Philadelphia, posted yesterday about some spider web blocks, entitling this clever entry: "Thinking of Wilbur".  I left a comment stating that I had a quilt with the words "Some Pig" quilted into a spiderweb. Her response: "I’d like to see that there Some Pig quilt of yours", prompted today's post.  This quilt is seventeen years old, it's a visual interpretation of word-play run amok! The title comes from CRAZY-patch construction of LITTLE CONVERSATION printS IN THE ATTIC windows setting.  Once the blocks were constructed I thought about literal conversations that might be had in an attic (reminiscent of the old $25,000 Pyramid game show... "things that might be said in an attic!") and added my own: "was I ever able to fit into this?", "what are we saving this for?", "you used to wear this?", "it has to be  up here somewhere", and "last one down turns out the light!" are all found in appliqued thought bubbles within the blocks.

Elaborating on the attic theme saw the raising of the "roof" to incorporate an actual attic space complete with a pair of mice; who happen to be playing, of course, (what else?) Cra-Z 8's!

I imagined there to be spiders in my attic, spiderweb quilting (by hand!) became the obvious choice. You can make out the words "some pig" just below the light bulb in this photo detail.

And there she is, the author of those words, Charlotte herself!

I'm grateful to Nancy for her recent thoughts of Wilbur, because of them (and her e-mail request) I was reunited with an old friend today... she's still looking pretty good after all these years and has reminded me of all the fun that quilting is, and always has been!

Life is Good!

Hand Embroidered, Machine Finished

Heartland ~ 49" X 56"

The quilting is finished on this little beauty. My mother hand embroidered the blocks, perhaps fifteen years ago. She discovered them last year and set them together into a quilt top, I volunteered to bring it home with me and take it from the flimsy stage to a full-fledged quilt; I am grateful that she trusted me with it. If memory serves, these embroidery patterns were published by Bareroots. I had a set too, mine were different though, blocks instead of hearts. Mom and I bought our patterns when we were together one time, at a cute little shop in Massachusetts. I remember finishing mine as a wallhanging in 2003; it hung in the studio for a few years.
I discovered it when I cleaned out the stash closet a few years ago. I'm glad that these are both done at long last, they look so completely different! Mom told me that she's naming hers "Heartland" after the Canadian series on television that we both love, a most fitting title.

Heartland; detail.

The back's cute too!

Life is Good!

Quilt Jail...

...if there was one, and there were quilt police, I would be behind bars with absolutely no chance for parole. You're wondering what this picture has to do with quilt jail, read on... you'll see. The first quilt I ever owned was a gift from my great-grandmother. She made two, nearly identical, quilts; one for me and one for my sister. They were (if memory serves, and that's a big "if") pieced from some sort of a combination Rail Fence/ Log Cabin pattern of  irregular strips and tied, not quilted, so I suppose they weren't even quilts at all, in the truest sense. I  took mine with me when I went away to college, it was the perfect thing to lie upon when sunbathing. As if it isn't bad enough to think about how much baby oil that quilt absorbed, think of this: I would "lay out" on a flat roof covered with asphalt shingles that my friends and I could access through a bathroom window in our freshman dorm. You can only imagine how badly destroyed that quilt became;  I threw it away.  Oh yeah, and then there was my skin... well, what can I say? It was 1971. Lock me up, throw away the key; I deserve it. The memory of that stained and abused quilt haunts me, even after all these years. I plan to recreate it, for Grandma; think of it as a long-overdue act of retribution.

EQ Design for 2014  "Grandma's Gift ~ A Recreation"  45" X 63"
This could be subtitled: "Behind Bars"

Life is Good!