Ms. Daisy's Daisy Quilt

Pictures below.

Paramedic Bob called me earlier in the month. He owns the local quilt shop and once in a while Buckaroo does odd jobs for him. I help him out too--mainly by telling everyone where they can find quilting fabric in town. 

Anyway, several weeks ago, a delightful woman drove more than an hour from some small town in Nowhere Arkansas with quilt pieces her mother, Ms. Daisy, hand-sewed together in 1982. The delightful woman wanted someone to make this into a quilt. Bob didn't have time (did I mention in addition to owning a quilt shop he also saves lives?) so he called me. 

Bob and I looked at her quilt blocks--which we both will swear on a stack of Holy Bibles were shaped like rectangles when we first saw them. My best guess is the fabric was once probably once a sheet or a set of curtains Ms. Daisy cut and sewed into hexagons. She added the leftover outgrown clothes of her children to complete these blocks. I only mention this because the color palate Ms. Daisy used is not what is in fashion now and Bob didn't have any reasonable fabric to compliment this. However, we did our best. 

Anyway, I took the job. And then I figured out they weren't rectangles but smashed hexagons. I spent two weeks staring at these things, trying to figure out a pattern that might make a reasonable quilt. Please keep in mind: if you've seen a blanket, you might notice it has four sides. These blocks did not match that and if sewn normally, would render an unusual pattern that wouldn't translate into a rectangular quilt. 

After several renditions of ideas from waves to the abstract, Marty and I sat down with these things. He is the one who came up with the design. However, that didn't get me any closer to figuring out how to piece it together and ultimately make it into a rectangle. So, I spent another week staring at the whole thing until an idea formed. 

I then went to town tearing up my kitchen, piecing the whole thing together. No matter, we all like to stand up and hold our bowls while we eat. 

It took me two and a half weeks of thinking and a week of assembling to come up with my final design. Tonight I dropped it off with Bob, who will longarm quilt the whole thing. Then I have to bind it. But, overall, I think it came out pretty well. And also, a huge shout-out to Bob who donated the fabric and interface backing to this project. Bless him. 

For those who think "skill and craftmanship" went into this, I'd like to set the record straight. I've been sewing for less than four years. I've made about 12 quilts in the last three and a half years. It wasn't skill and craftmanship. It was a seam ripper and a vocabulary of a sailor. However, I learned so much!  And honestly, it was fun to make this. 

The paper model with far too much math involved. 
Modern quilts are assembled in blocks from multiples of four.
This 1982-era block was multiples of six, squeezed into a rectangle. I half-wonder if Ms. Daisy never made it into a quilt because she figured out she was putting hexagons into a square hole and said, "oops!" 

  

Not gonna lie, I was afraid to cut Ms. Daisy's pieces. They were very frail.
I added a backing to them to make them sturdy. 

This looks simple. It isn't. 

Missing from this picture: the ironing board we all walked around. And Luna, who liked to be underfoot when I was cutting. My sewing machine was set up in my bedroom and Marty had to walk around that when he wanted to get to his side of the room. 

Also, see the orange piece on the small table? EVERY PIECE OF MS. DAISY'S HAD THAT SCALLOPED EDGE. So, they all had to be cut. My heart ached cutting into the blocks.
What if I mis-cut and ruined her hand-sewn block? But it had to be done to make this work. Plus, I wasn't sewing scalloped edges.  

That can of air on the table was to deter Leon who thought it was great fun to jump up there and take off with random quilt pieces. 


Ta-Da! 

Bob has this now and is putting it on his longarm machine. The red patch in the middle was from one of the leftover blocks. I originally thought I'd use some of the leftover blocks and make the border. However, that looked too busy. After I put this red piece in I debated pulling it out. But the 44 year old fabric is so frail I was afraid if I pulled it out I'd make a bigger disaster. 

So, Bob is going to sew (with his longarm quilting machine) a heart there and put the letter "D" inside it (for Ms. Daisy). The design on the quilt will be daisies.