August mini quilt

I won’t mention how fast summer flew by because I think we have all felt the same way. Instead I will impart my funny story about this month’s mini quilt.

At our state show back in July, Laurie LaBar (Chief Curator of History and Decorative Arts – Maine StateMuseum) curated a fabulous exhibit of Maine quilts from the museum. Laurie has been working diligently on an upcoming book on Maine Quilts and we (along with friend Sue Rivers) spent some time chatting about it. One of the things she mentioned was that she didn’t think there would be room for any patterns in the book. Sue and I looked at each other and said, “Well, we have no problem with that but… you might sell more copies if you had just one pattern”.

We gazed around the room and almost at the same moment pointed at the beautiful c1830 Puss in the Corner quilt and said “perfect”.

Simple, yet elegant. We could give directions for the full size and one mini! Problem solved – oh wait did I mention that the deadline was August 17!!?

So… we don’t know if the pattern will make it into the publication but in the meantime, Sue has a lovely full size rendition and I have my August mini done.

Since it was a Maine quilt, I used this little vintage map fabric on the back. It was a bit troublesome to hand quilt through, but I love it!

The second part of the funny story is that I couldn’t find the photo I took at the show but because of the time crunch I chose fabrics and started cutting and piecing from memory. I grabbed all the c1830 fabrics I could find in the colors I remembered. I put the whole top together and decided I didn’t like this block

and that it needed more early green. So, I picked out the seams and replaced it with this one. 

After I had the whole thing basted and ready to hand quilt I found the original picture – yup you guessed it. There is almost no green at all. I usually have a good memory for fabrics, especially antiques. I think I was smitten with this one eccentric print that had a touch of green and yellow. Luckily, I like the new block and the whole quilt anyway! It is one quarter of the original and will be an easy one to reproduce should the patterns actually make it into the book.

End of funny stories!

Do visit the rest of the merry quilters who have made a little mini for August. Cheers to all of you who have taken a few precious moments of summer to stitch these lovelies!

Kyle (Timeless Reflections) 
Barbara (Quilts, Gravestones and Elusive Ancestors) - Barbara made 2 this month!
Janet (Rogue Quilter)
Randy (Barrister's Block)
Sandy (My Material Creations)
Shasta (High Road Quilter)

Although Dawn (Collector with a Needle) is not officially following along , you will really want to the two little quilts she made for a canopy doll bed (here). Gorgeous! And, my friend Gladi (Gladi's Quilts) makes a trio of mini's each year and I thought you would enjoy seeing some of her progress (here).

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