FUSION

Kathleen Tracy (https://sentimentalquilter.blogspot.com/2023/03/simple-sewing-mindless-piecing.html) recently did a post on simple sewing, mindless piecing with the thought that it promotes creativity.  I needed some mindless piecing, so decided on a simple bars quilt from the scrap bins.

THE STATS:  FUSION, 2023, 33" x 33", Machine pieced, Machine quilted, 424 pieces sewn together to make one entity - a fusion. 

After all of my quiltmaking years, I'm still experimenting with how colors and patterns in fabrics react to each other so this wasn't completely a mindless task.   No representational thoughts, however -- just simple sewing and fabric.

It was so beautiful at the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs that I couldn't stop taking photos!

HOME SWEET COLORADO HOME

  My family homesteaded in southeast Colorado in 1876, the year that Colorado became a state.   One grandmother, both of my parents, and I were all born in a small town in southeast Colorado.  Our roots run deep!  I've been blessed to be raised and live here; never wanting to reside anywhere else.  There are many places and things that remind me of how special Colorado is to me.  In this quilt, I wanted to highlight some of those memories. 

  Using the medium of wool applique, I decided to showcase vignettes in a format similar to a gallery wall.  That was the concept; this is the quilt.

THE STATS:  Home Sweet Colorado Home, 2023, 26" x 26", Machine Appliqued, Machine Pieced, Machine Quilted

I have done wool applique small quilts before, however this is definitely a design-as- you-go quilt with no pattern  --  just scribbles and scissors. 

ROW 1 (left to right)

 1.  The Colorado State flag -- to me it is beautiful in its simplicity.

2.  Fond memories as a boarding student at St. Scholastica Academy in Canon City with a nod to the Holy Cross Abbey now a winery.

3.  A field of sunflowers in Colorado makes my heart happy.

4.  The Clock Tower on Canon City's main street was originally on the top of the county courthouse, a beautiful building but demolished c.1950s.

ROW 2:

 1.  Canon City's annual Blossom Festival was begun in the middle 1800s and continues today.  Fun times over the years!

2.  The Royal Gorge Bridge and Park owned by the City of Canon City with lots of family time spent there over the years.  My mother was there on the opening day of the bridge in October 1929.

3.  The river, ponds, and mountains abound in our area.

ROW 3:

1.  My family's homestead in southeast Colorado established in 1876.

2.  A sunset in Colorado -- always beautiful setting behind the mountains.

3.  The state flower, the columbine, and the beauty of the aspen trees in the Fall.

ROW 4:

1.  Colorado's license plate with the mountains supposedly as the view of the foothills west of Canon City.

2.  The picket fence in front of our home in Canon City.

3.   My birth place, Rocky Ford, was once known as the "Melon Capital of the World" and for the fields of zinnias grown for seed.

 There is no place like home!

WHEELHOUSE

 I'm attracted to pink/red and brown quilts especially if they involve curves. I also like a  challenge in drawing a workable pattern with geometric theories learned 65+ years ago.  In trying to find an old protractor, my mathematical son told me they don't divide a curve in equal segments that way any more.  It is all done on the computer --- well, guess I'm just old-school!  Fortunately, we found a larger protractor in a drawer from our old engineering business days.

There are innumerable ways these 5" blocks can be set together.  I experimented, but decided on this way.  I never can resist a large, floral print for a border.

THE STATS:  Wheelhouse, 2023, 28" x 28", Paper pieced, machine pieced, machine quilted.

 PS:  I thoroughly enjoyed making this quilt including this family of nerd's discussion over dinner about the different ways a curve can be divided into even divisions.  It reminded me of road trips with Mike when he was a preschooler.  The three of us would pass traveling time by working simple algebraic and geometric problems in our heads. He was quick even as a 3-year-old to understand the concepts. At the time, we didn't realize his lifework would be in mathematics and science.  We've made a lot of parenting mistakes over the years.  Exposing him to math was not one of them.  Also, teaching him where middle C was on the piano at 18 months of age was a good one.  He is a very respectable pianist today.  Unfortunately, the joy of quiltmaking isn't in any of our kids' or grandkids' wheelhouse.  Win a few, lose a lot -- that's parenting!