Wednesday, July 22, 2009

A WIP - "Mother Earth"


This is my current project, a smaller version of one I worked on a year ago, as a Raffle Quilt.

I scaled down the pieces, was careful to use muted/grayed earthy colors, and did not worry about light/darks, going vertically, or horizontally. The wide border will have a good amount of appliqued flowers, vines, leaves, either at opposite corners or all around. There is a narrow border of ??? green or dusty red between the 4-patches and the border. The cream border fabrics (cream blotchy with small brown polka dots) are wider then pictured - I folded them smaller but it may require the wider width. The finished project should be about 58 x 70 inches.

The 4-patches finish at 3.5 inches, and the original pattern is from Mimi Dietrick, Bed and Breakfast Quilts.

This is for my SIL, also called Elaine, who does a fantastic job with her flowers and with 5 children and many grandchildren, is a sort of "Mother Earth" herself.

I - Elaine - am 5 ft. 7 inches - and NOT slim, nor small by any means. My brother met HIS Elaine who was small, under 5 feet, and early in their life, weighed LESS than 100 lbs - a small young woman. I was pushing 140 lbs. To differentiate between the two of us, we called her "Little Elaine" leaving me ... blank Elaine. No one said "big" but the unspoken word was THERE! It was always funny to hear family mention the both of us in the same sentence, because they would easily say "Little Elaine" but always stumble when MY name came up! LOL

When I visited her recently, I said I wanted to make her a quilt and this is what she chose.

8 comments:

  1. Well, Blank Elaine, that's going to be a very pretty quilt for Little Elaine!

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  2. That implied word was not very good on the self esteem was it? But it is very nice to have the skill to create such a beautiful quilt for a SIL who does not quilt.

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  3. Love the quilt! I think they meant to call you Sweet Elaine :-)

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  4. Nice quilt. Once my MIL was telling our daughter how her DIL's were such good housekeepers but when she got to me she said, Your mother has 4 kids. Lol. Sometimes what is unsaid is more telling than what is said.

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  5. The quilt is really coming along nicely. I look forward to seeing the borders come together. I love the story about the names. I never said, but my middle name is Elaine, my husband refers to me as 'Lane'. No one ever understands who he is referring to. I guess he got tired of my name, ha! ha! My mom is Lucille Christine, but most people call her Chris, so I am Little Chris! I got the name by age default,ha!ha!

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  6. That is going to be a beauty, Elaine! I do love those scrappy quilts best, and then to add applique in the borders---I can't wait to see it!

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  7. Very darling quilt! Sweet Elaine, that is what they meant.

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  8. I think they meant to say "Talented Elaine". That quilt is an example of how sometimes a simple pattern is best and lets the colors carry the design. It will be lovely. And I can't wait to see the applique. Hand or machine?

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