Remainders/Reminders 07-15-08

Since I have been sewing/quilting I have always saved scraps. When I made my own clothes I rolled up the scraps and tied them with a thin piece torn off of an edge. This is what my mother and my grandmother and my aunt did, so I did it also. Now, of course, I stuff them into a zip baggie of an appropriate size.

I've always enjoyed running across these little bundles when looking through my scrap box. They bring back memories of clothes and quilts long gone. In my organizing I came across a bag containing these scraps, which are not all from the same quilt - I wonder how that happened? But most are from the quilt below.

"Cactus Flower" Del Thomas 2000 61.5"W x 48"L

Machine Pieced and Machine Quilted

Of course, this evening I cannot find a really good picture of it on my computer, this one was taken at a group exhibit at Back Porch Fabrics in Pacific Grove, CA, a couple years ago. I started the quilt in a Ruth McDowell class at Asilomar, took the paper design back the next year to do more work on it and finally start auditioning fabrics. Back home it was so hard to concentrate on such a complex project that I finally went out alone to Corky's house in the desert and did nothing but work on this quilt for five days. And that is just fabric selection and piecing. As you can tell, I am not one of the speed queens in the quilting world! I didn't keep track of the machine quilting time, but it seemed to take forever. I guess this quilt took me about 2-1/2 years and cost around $3000 - counting two classes at Empty Spools and one trip to the desert! Of course, one can't think of it like that, because everything we learn along the way continues to be useful for many future quilts. This is the largest quilt I have made using Ruth's piecing techniques, but I have done many smaller ones as it is a technique I thoroughly enjoy.