Dots and Vines

Yes, I’ve been sewing in this safe-at-home time.  I’ve been busy finishing old abandoned projects as well as exploring new ones.

One of the new things I’ve done is this piece I called Dots and Vines.  Inspired by my grandmother’s quilt on this table in our den, I assembled many many circles appliqued on squares.  

Ollie Jane’s quilt lives on this table most of the year and I continually look at it and think, what a powerful design.  I ought to recreate it.  Finally, I did.

Though it doesn’t look much like her work (nor much like mine, for that matter – it’s rather modern, don’t you think?),  it’s another example of stitching that reflects the love of cloth through generations; a tale that never grows old.

I chose to use Cherrywood handdyed fabrics.  The circles are 1” in diameter, the squares finish at 3”.  I spent many morning hours on the porch stitching these, and many more hours doing the same at night in front of the tv.  Many hours of delicious time thinking and soothing the soul while pulling a threaded needle through cloth.  

There were days when the finished blocks danced all around my design wall, trying to find the right arrangement of color.  Here you see them with several fabrics I considered using as borders.

But the final arrangement has no border.  A nice stripe from Kaffe Fassett’s collection as binding seemed to bring enough closure.

I knew the entire time that I wanted to quilt a meandering vine from variegated thread, so that’s the rest of the title, Dots and Vines, a bit of homage to a book I came to love in college math classes, The Dot and the Line.  I considered August 12, 2020  as its title – that’s the day I finished the quilt and it just happened to be the 225^th day of this calendar year.  But that title requires too much explanation in casual conversation, so Dots and Vines it is.

I made many more circle blocks that are waiting another use.  But the 225 that I chose means I have a 45” square finished piece.  I like that size.  It’s good to drape over a chair, take along on a photo ride-about, or use as a table topper.

I continue to stay busy with a variety of things, including nature photography.  But most things are connected to fiber in some way.  Don’t you think it would be interesting to make a textile version of these mushrooms?  I see red thread here.

More about my grandmother’s quilts can be found here and here. Enter “Ollie Jane” in the search box for even more.