It’s October, cool, and time to think about glorious leaves falling. I love to see the leaves drift down from the trees, and I love the colors as the chlorophyll breaks down. The shades of red and yellow taking over from the green are spellbinding. And orange is there, too.
Orange is not my favorite color in decorating or in quilts. But this time of year, I incorporate it into our lives. Our guild’s designated Challenge Queen, Tess, loves to require a bit of orange in her rules; so I’m learning to incorporate it without screaming. And, if the theme is fall, I get to use pumpkins, which I love. I love their shapes, texture, and color. The pillow here is wool appliqué. The pumpkin and leaves wools were purchased hand dyes, the background is a recycled wool skirt, felted and reused.
Two recent projects include pumpkins. This 5” x 7” framed piece is a pumpkin appliquéd onto a fabric replica of an old sampler in colors of autumn.
Another pumpkin is hand appliquéd on an old linen doily with free-motion machine quilting, hand embroidery, and beading. It is attached to a remnant of an old quilt and measures 22” x 17”.
The middle layer is a found remnant of linen drapery fabric. I just love the grasshopper. You can click on any photo to enlarge it, but this is one you might really want to examine.
Above is the entire piece.
This post describes some earlier quilts with fall themes and colors.
And to read more about Tess and challenge quilts, you can type “challenge” in the search box, or click on that category name. There are several related posts. Many include orange.
And, an earlier quilt called After the Chlorophyll is here.
Sarah Beth, Sarah Bob, Sarah Frances. Margaret Ann, Lou Emmelyn, Mary Frances; all are common names in the South. And with women, both halves of the double names are used on a daily basis. Shortened forms of Mary Elizabeths I’ve known were Lilly Bet, Mae Liz, and the ever popular Mary Beth. To get the right perspective here, you should read the list aloud, slowly. Very slowly. Put a little twang in there. Now you’ve got it.
es of popularity. In one generation, almost all the Sadies have died out. Then there is a rash of little Sadies running around. I think that particular name is beautiful, because it is beautiful, and the Sadie (actually in her generation it was Sadie Belle) in my life was a beautiful person. She is the woman pictured at the top of this post. There was a beautiful Cleo in my life, too. But I’m not hoping to see that name resurrected. The same goes for Ena Belle, Maudie Lee, and Mary Etta. Those don’t roll trippingly off the tongue.
In the South, if a woman doesn’t have a double name already, we make it so by adding Miss or Aunt. Miss Lily, Miss Emily, Aunt Gladys (though no kinship exists) were big in my life. And then I became Miss Sandy.
Miz Sadie Turns 80 was made for my mother-in-law in 2004. The blocks are the traditional Ohio Star blocks, finished at 9”. Sashing is 1” wide (beginning my insistence that narrow sashing separates, but doesn’t overwhelm the blocks). The overall quilt measures 63” square. It is pictured here hanging at the Georgia National Fair in 2004, one of the first quilt competitions I entered. It won a blue ribbon, and Miz Sadie was so pleased that she asked if she could have the ribbon, too. The quilt hung in her home with ribbon attached, as long as she lived there.
The label is a 
I’ve written before about how stitching soothes my soul. That happens when I’m in front of the tv and multitasking, when I’m visiting with family and friends and my hands are busy, or sometimes when riding in the car. Those are often the times when my hand stitching gets done.
As I watched her video where Jude is adding white hearts to a heavily stitched white nine-patch and emphasizing the touch points of the hearts with red thread, she notices that they remind her of a scar. Her perception always gives me pause, and this struck me deeply.
I can’t explain why, but I had a flashback to my life working with teachers. One of my colleagues heard a teacher say, “we like this book because we can go in the classroom and teach without having to think about it.” Harriet said to me, “I don’t want teachers who don’t think about what they are teaching.” Indeed.
Sometimes I sew without thinking about sewing. And, that is relaxing to me, to be sure. The rhythmic pulling of thread through cloth allows my mind to be somewhere else, planning something. But Jude’s symbology in her work, her soul searching thoughts remind me to pursue even more depth in my stitching stories. She reminds me that only when we share the stories behind our work, the symbology we’ve included, the strategies we’ve used, do others really appreciate our art. I admit if I had seen the white hearts on white stitching, I might not have noticed the red thread, and if I had, I might not have made the “scar” connection.
Photos: The photos of the “beast” piece is one I was fortunate enough to buy from Jude. When her pieces go on sale, you have to be sitting at the computer watching (or lucky) because they sell quickly. I love having this piece to examine. Seeing her stitches and handling her work informed me of her techniques so much that I began to consider selling some of my own work. If my work could help another quilt maker with a particular technique, or if the final result gave a viewer satisfaction, than I would be willing to share it that way. You see images of the whole piece, approximately 6” x 9”, and closeups of the front and back.
The photos of the blue hearts are my work. I made that piece after watching Jude’s 
