Ruth B. McDowell quilt in TCQC 09-18-11

Some of you will recognize this quilt from the cover of Ruth McDowell's best selling 2000 book "Pieced Flowers" published by C&T.  I couldn't get my check written fast enough when this one came up for sale.   

 

"Day Lilies"  Ruth B. McDowell - Colrain, MA.  1999  31.5" square

Cotton fabric, cotton batt, cotton thread.  Machine pieced and quilted.

All four of these thirteen inch blocks are made with inset corner seams which require an accomplished piecer to do them justice.  As in all of her piecing the seams are pressed to the flowers causing them to appear slightly raised from the background. The fabrics used for the background vary, as what is in the background in a natural view would vary.  The background is mostly quilted with "Ruth's Fan", a machine version of "Methodist Fan" (also known as, "Baptist Fan"  or "Presbyterian Fan" or whatever religion you chose!).

Ruth has the very best eye for fabric selection.  Sometimes it is very subtle as in this flower.

Below it she has machine sewn "Inset Corners" to indicate that is the technique used for the piecing in this quilt.  She carried the small sample quilts for this book around the country for the classes she taught. .

For this flower Ruth has chosen a variety of prints that most of us wouldn't even consider, but they work.

Her hand lettered labels are always so precise.  This one is written on the same fabric she used for the sleeve - a Marimekko scrap.

 

An interesting country toile used for the backing

http://www.ruthbmcdowell.com/

NOTE: There is quite a good article about Ruth in the Aug/Sep 2011 issue of QNM.