An itchy eye a few nights ago turned into a burning eyeball, which then was diagnosed as a scratched cornea. Yesterday was painful. Today is much better, thanks to modern medicine. All this resulted in my vision being temporarily blurry in one eye.
But I found myself with just Schnap nudging my shin, and no one needing last minute laundry, lunch, dinner, or chauffeuring. So Co-Q and I decided to quilt something relatively uncomplicated.
We’d been wanting to do an improvisational log cabin quilt ever since we’d seen one on the wall at New Pieces in Berkeley. ( It turns out that the instructor also has some progress pictures for an Improvisational Split Log Cabin at her site which I found after I made my large squares.) Since there isn’t super exacting matching, cutting, and corners on this one, it was the ideal project for today.
I like the feel of the Gee’s Bend quilts. Wonky, pieced with purpose, but using every bit of fabric as efficiently as possible while creating a repeating pattern. Having seen some of the Gee’s Bend quilts in person at the De Young museum when it was on loan here in the Bay Area, I was impressed with them as powerful works of folk art, though I confess I was a bit disconcerted at first by the workmanship and wear on these quilts that were so acclaimed. These were quilts that kept people warm way before they were considered ‘art’, made from scraps of old dungarees, thrown out bits of corduroy, scraps from garment production bins. They were ‘make do’ utilitarian quilts before they became famous.
Mine’s made from Robert Kaufman Kona Cotton Solids I had in stock. It was fun quilt top to make during a day when listening to NPR podcasts and sewing with a blurry eye was a relaxing thing to do with a co-quilter. It’s a ‘make do’ quilt in a different way.
piecedgoods 