"Middlesex Fells - Late Fall" 12-27-09

"Middlesex Fells - Late Fall" Ruth B. McDowell 1996 95"W x 75"L

Commercial and hand dyed cottons, batiks, cotton thread, cotton batting

Machine pieced, raw-edge pieced, machine appliqued.

Sometimes this quilt is referred to as the "Plaid Forest" - it perfectly demonstrates Ruth's use of plaids off grain to give the impression of many different small branches and twigs in the density of the trees.

This is the largest quilt in the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection. So large that I told Ruth that I would buy it if I had a wall large enough! I went home and measured and e-mailed her that YES it would fit on two different walls of my house. Since it is so large it is consequently quite heavy and I don't always include it in presentations, even if I can hang it. But it is a very unusual quilt in that it is pieced in the "old fashioned way" (sewing the pieces together face to face and then pressing open) and also in a "new fashioned way" (overlapping raw edges and sewing them down). Ruth had completed three vertical sections for this work, but wasn't happy with the over-all quilt. She took it to a meeting of her small group and hung it up for their opinions - after looking for a bit one of them moved the middle section up and the right section down. And they all agreed it worked. Ruth then had to figure out a way to put the three pieces together since they were designed to fit perfectly, sewn face and face and turned/pressed. Thus her early use of raw edge applique to join the sections and some raw edge surface applique, presumably to 'even things out'

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You can see one of those added applique pieces here on the top left border of the quilt.

She used many different quilting patterns - including this one which her students call "NZ" or "New Zealand quilting" since it resembles the letters NZ.

I have put in all these detail shots so you can see the amazing selection of cotton fabrics Ruth has used to create the impression of an understory of many different plants and stones beneath fallen leaves.

If you click to enlarge you will be able to see the fabric insertion where she has used some of the fancy stitches on her Pfaff of the moment.

Another quilting design - leaves in the leafy understory of the forest.

Unfortunately I have posted this picture up-side-down! I could delete it, or delete the entire post and start over again, but I have decided to just leave it as is. The space across the bottom is the backside of the quilt - I had it hanging folded over the top bar of my quilt display stand. You can identify several different quilting designs and also some machine buttonhole stitches used on the raw edge.

On the back of this quilt Ruth has used a furnishing cloth printed with large colorful parrots and tropical foliage and flowers: note her hand printed label and also the TCQC label above it. The fancy backing fabrics she uses make her quilts so distinctive and special. Although I had previously used some 'fancy' backs on quilts, I didn't go berserk until after I had a class with Ruth - guess she gave me "permission" even if unconsciously.
www.ruthbmcdowell.com

I am feeling better every day and tomorrow I am going to keep my committment to take a workshop offered by the Surfside Quilters Guild. I have been waiting a long time, through many delays, so I am excited about it. If I run out of steam I will just curl up under a table and have a nap! I've been getting really good at napping.