Before I made my second quilt, we had had a second child, and I was working at home as a typist while my husband pursued his Ph.D. in English and American Literature. As you might imagine, we had precious little money, so hobbies that depended on recycling old clothing were okay by me. By that time I had seen my first quilting magazine, which contained two bits of valuable information that led to this quilt: first, a picture of the “starburst” pattern block, and second, a nugget of text stating that if the quilt didn't include batting, it was called a “coverlet” quilt. Aha...quilts didn't always have batting: here was a way to deal with the fact that I didn't know what batting was or how to get it into my quilt and keep it there through the washing process. I chose the eight-pointed starburst block to use up various pieces of my husband's shirts and pants, along with other collected fabric odds and ends. At the time, I used my best judgment—flawed, as it turned out—to sew each diamond-shaped patch to the next, sewing the eighth patch to the first when I had come round to the beginning again. This method yielded a star-shaped volcano with a hole in the center. I persisted in block after block, thinking that as I got better they would flatten out and the center holes would get smaller. Apparently I didn't get that much better, because the holes didn't get smaller. Yet I progressed: the situation led me to do my very first hand appliqué and to use my very first batting, as I plunked down a cotton ball in the center of each star and hand-sewed a fabric circle in place to cover the (w)hole mess.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
3. The Coverlet Quilt
Before I made my second quilt, we had had a second child, and I was working at home as a typist while my husband pursued his Ph.D. in English and American Literature. As you might imagine, we had precious little money, so hobbies that depended on recycling old clothing were okay by me. By that time I had seen my first quilting magazine, which contained two bits of valuable information that led to this quilt: first, a picture of the “starburst” pattern block, and second, a nugget of text stating that if the quilt didn't include batting, it was called a “coverlet” quilt. Aha...quilts didn't always have batting: here was a way to deal with the fact that I didn't know what batting was or how to get it into my quilt and keep it there through the washing process. I chose the eight-pointed starburst block to use up various pieces of my husband's shirts and pants, along with other collected fabric odds and ends. At the time, I used my best judgment—flawed, as it turned out—to sew each diamond-shaped patch to the next, sewing the eighth patch to the first when I had come round to the beginning again. This method yielded a star-shaped volcano with a hole in the center. I persisted in block after block, thinking that as I got better they would flatten out and the center holes would get smaller. Apparently I didn't get that much better, because the holes didn't get smaller. Yet I progressed: the situation led me to do my very first hand appliqué and to use my very first batting, as I plunked down a cotton ball in the center of each star and hand-sewed a fabric circle in place to cover the (w)hole mess.
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