Quilt Development

This series is likely to have very little "Thinking Through My Fingers."  I need to plan what I want, its sequence, and how I will describe it.  For this evening, I'm not there yet, so this is a learning experiment for me.

I took some photographs last evening.  This evening I resized them so that they will be loaded on to the blog faster.  It might be easier, though certainly not what I want, to put them in a photo album similar to those on the right side.  Let me jump into this, and we shall all see how successful it will be.

The term quilt raises various images in people's mind.  As with so many elements of what used to be  essential, everyday, useful elements of life has evolved into much more.  There are highly developed art forms, partially possible because sewing machines have changed enormously and are much more capable with more bells and whistles than the quilter of the late 1800's through mid-1900s.  Some quilts are pieced and quilted by machine, and are truly works of art, hanging in museums around the world.

I am, however, a throwback.  I hand piece and hand quilt.  Every stitch of a quilt I do is accomplished by my fingers pushing a needle through the fabric.  Before they are able to sew the pieces together, the pieces must be cut in a pattern.  This quilt has four separate forms.  There is the center, an arc, a connector, and a melon.  They are laid out on the right.

There are two connectors, the small diamond shaped pieces a gold one and a purple one, shown on the left of the photo.  There are two arcs, which you can see enclose the melon.  Four melons fit around the center piece.  This photo has the pieces laid on a green cutting board.  The yellow lines form one inch squares.  That may give you an idea of the scale of each piece.

After cutting the pieces, they are sewn together in sequence.  Connectors are attached to each end of half of the arcs.  This photo is of the connectors.  You can see that they are essentially diamonds, with two sides slightly curved.  These are attached to an arc.  Both connectors are connected to one arc.  I suppose it is possible to attach one connector to one of the arcs, the other to the other arc, but sewing them to the melon is more difficult.

The arcs have curved ends which fit into the curves of the connectors.  The completed arcs get sewn onto the melons, the longer one with the connectors first, then the shorter one.  So far, this is the most difficult step in the piecing.  The melons curves are more rounded, and its difficult to sew the arcs on it and have the finished item lay flat.  I say so far, because there are steps to come that may have other kinds of problems.

When the circles are sewn there is one side left open.  That allows the circles to fit together, providing the Double Wedding Ring pattern.  This photo is the first of 35 circles for the quilt.  I've placed the open side down to indicate that this circle will be the first of a row.  The next circle will be laid with its open side fitting around the right side of the first and will only have two melons inserted.  Those photos will be later in the series.

I may be a romantic because I really like the symbolism of this pattern.  The circles interlock, each supporting the others.  This is the first circle, but I can already feel its effect.

Re-reading, I think the description is overly technical.  I also wish I had taken a photo of the melon with arcs sewn on before they were attached to the center.  I can see that most of the series will only need one photo to illustrate where I am in developing this quilt. Any suggestions for improvement are encouraged, and certainly welcome.  Thanks for hanging in there.

Comments

[Felix Grant]

This was wonderful - and very well constructed. Such descriptions, seeking to communicate from from a state of knowledge to those without it, are very difficult to write, and you have done it well. You were right to choose photographs set into the text, rather than an album to the side - and both selection and resizing are perfect.

I can feel the rhythmic meaning of the coming pattern.

I'm looking forward to the rest of the journey.