The top border of the Crinoline Ladies quilt is quilted. Now for the blocks!
The batting is all sewn together, and quilt top, batting, and backing are loaded on the frame. Let the quilting begin!
The 52 blocks are all trimmed. Most were pretty close to 8 ½" square, so there's not too awfully big a pile of trimmings. Now to sew them together! (The blocks, not the trimmings, heh.)
Five blocks done today (one from the three I pieced yesterday jumped into the picture; quite cheeky, if you ask me), making a total of 23. That means there are 29 to go.
The two curved pieces, one concave and one convex, that make
up the units for this block are the same ones used in all the varieties of the
Drunkard’s Path quilt. This particular variation
is called the ‘I Wish You Well’ block.
It is often interpreted as a meandering, healing, or ‘wish’ pattern, and
is sometimes used in ‘healing’ or encouragement quilts.
Some say the design was created and made by ladies
supporting Prohibition, way back when. There’s
also another story which might be more accurate, since Prohibition was only in
the 1920s-1930s, and this quilt block has been found in quilts dating back far
longer ago than that. It may have been a
silent signal to initiate the journey toward freedom on the Underground
Railroad, giving coded direction to runaway slaves. It may have acted as a preparatory message,
often associated with gathering supplies or signaling the time to begin the
escape, alongside other patterns like the Log Cabin and the Bow Tie.
There are many quilt blocks that had special meaning, and
the runaways knew how to interpret them when they’d find quilts hanging on
clotheslines, lopped over garden gates, or displayed in windows. These stories, however, have been debated for
years.
One block takes me an hour and 15 minutes to piece. I have not yet timed the cutting of the
pieces for one block.
There are over 80 historically documented varieties and
thousands of mathematical combinations of quilt blocks that can be made using
the Drunkard’s Path unit.
Three more blocks are done for the Crinoline Ladies quilt, and the pieces for six more blocks are cut and ready to piece together.
One block done for the Crinoline Ladies quilt. 51 more to go! I'm going to make it scrappy. I have a lot of different purples, lilacs, and lavenders. These blocks won't be fast! All those little curves. 😬 I'm happily relieved it turned out as good as it did. I'm debating... shall I make each block scrappy within itself, or shall I make each block uniform? Hmmm...
The central section of the Crinoline Ladies quilt is done. Now for the 52 blocks that surround it. That entails cutting and piecing 832 units with curved seams.
This design has a flying bird. I looked at my embroidery thread... and chose a pale, variegated, metallic pastel spool, thinking to make it look like a shimmering dove.
One Crinoline Lady down, five more to go. Isn't it cute? The center panel with its border is done; the next border will include the Crinoline Ladies.
