Surely there as a way to DIY something that would not look calico, ruffled, shabby/country chic and old-fashioned... I thought a bedspread would be a good start.
Remember, this was before the internet. FInding a pattern required a trip to the library or bookstore. And I knew of no quilting groups for younger women (as I was at the time). I just knew I wanted something different from the old-fashioned, Americana type quilt that would be at home in a country cozy house. I wanted urban... or beachy... not farmhouse. So I stumbled upon the tumbling blocks pattern and realized that it could be altered to give a little modern twist. Use some brighter fabrics. In this case, a range from cobalt, to teal to purple...
I honestly don't remember how I did the quilt top. People I've met recently ask if I had trouble with all the Y seams... apparently, that's not something that quilters look forward to... I don't remember it being a big problem for me. The problem was putting it together into a useful object. So I put it aside.
And then, about 25 years later, my Mom died. My Dad spent a few lonely years, and I really, really needed to do something special for him for his next birthday. So last year in late August, I pulled the old quilt top out. It did not have a border, just a bunch of diamond shapes sticking out... in some areas, it was so skee-jawed (mom's term, I think the modern quilting term would be "wonky"), that I didn't think it could be made into a square/rectangular quilt shape. But I powered through it. I pieced a few yards of dark blue, and spray-based it to a fluffy-lofted filling, and then spray basted the top to it. It had (and still has) giant folds and wrinkles in it. But that was the only way to get it semi-straight. I rolled the diamond sides over to the back side, so if you look at the back, it's got a strange, rolled hem with a pattern to it... well, "pattern" would be a misnomer... variegated colors. I didn't cut off any diamond tips, just folded them under. Probably a mistake, but it made for a kind of undulating and VERY home-made-y finish to it. Then I stitched in the ditch.
With my home sewing machine, this was a challenge... a fluffy lofted quilt pushing through the normal sized arm... SOOOO... I chose to start in kind of a spiral, stitching all the ditches that were outside and easy to reach, turning as I found a corner...
That did pretty good. It got me through about 1/3 of the quilt on each side, and a little from the top & bottom... the middle 1/3 of the quilt was the only part that was tough to quilt. But Dad's October 6th, 85th birthday was looming and I had a deadline. On October 3, 2012, I finished the quilt!
more than 25 years in the making. I started it just after graduate school, between 1983 and 1985... and now it was done.
My Dad, who was has become my idea of the best type of "cool", now has it. He's slowed down, so he needs the extra warmth. But the modern style fits his style. Although he grew up in a very rural community and had not a lot of family money, he worked hard and got himself through medical school. He went to Korea at about the time period referenced in M*A*S*H, and worked in an Evac unit. He returned to Ft. Meade and met my mother, who was working as head of the secretarial pool in the Department of the Navy at the Pentagon (the part of the pentagon that was victim of the 9-11 attacks 40+ years after she left it). They married and moved to live in New York. Mom worked for the CIA and Dad was a resident in pathology at the hospital across the street. They lived in a very urban way, living in a building that everyone who was there knew was condemned, and as soon as all the residents could be ousted, it would be demolished. They were the picture of the first "yuppies"... hosting martini parties and living the best young-adult life available to a dual income professional couple. When they had me, they chose the most modern way of child-birth, the natural method... Dad, the newly minted pathologist working in a research hospital, was aware of all the newest research, and he decided that all the epidurals and such were probably not a good idea.
After I arrived, they moved to "the country", a gated community in Rockaway beach. We lived on the beach across from our church. I probably made sandcastles with some of the boys who, 40 years later, were victim of the 9-11 attacks on the WTC. That very Catholic, very Irish neighborhood was hard hit, considering the number of them who had chosen careers in law enforcement and firefighting. But 50 years ago, before our country lost it's innocence, my Daddy was still a smoker. Mom, with her black hair and bright blue eyes looked like a young Liz Taylor... and Dad looked like... well, there's one photo of him leaning against his car at the beach. I'm playing in the sand at his feet, and he has a cigarette pack rolled up in his t-shirt. He looked like the picture of James Dean, a Rebel without a cause.... the ultimate of "cool". Given that they maintained their own moral compasses and did not do the heavy drinking, drugging, and cheating that the hipster generation might have done, they really were "cool". Doing the part of the hip stuff that we look at old movies and long for... the super-cool martini parties, the fondue parties, etc... but missing the part of that generation's behavior that caused many of them to get old before their times.
These days, he feels cold more often than he exudes cool... so the quilt is a good fit.
I held it in the back of my mind that this quilt was not good enough for him, but better to give it than to hold it back and wait. We don't have time to wait, these days. But I still worried. And then the miracle of modern technology came to my rescue. I was browsing and found a quilter's guild. Actually, I found LOTS of quilters' guilds. So I found one that fit my schedule and went, and then joined. And I talked to people, heard their stories, saw how perfect their quilts were, and asked some questions... And I explained how intensely IMPERFECT this first quilt was. And they helped me let go of it. THe imperfections...
I guess the quilters who finish their projects are the ones who don't get mired in worry about the imperfections. Maybe I'll tell that to my artistic niece, who seems to have a hard time finishing her projects... that finishing it is more important than perfecting it. What a great lesson to learn....
... lesson learned... 25+ years later
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