Pillow

Auditioning the hour glass pieced border

I created this embroidery in 2014 as a block for the quilt project, "Bitter Sweet Memories." This was my test block. I thought that I would make a pillow out of it. I put aside a piece of red fabric from my stash that I thought would make a ruffle and a back. You can see that piece of read fabric in my third quarter goals post.

The only problem was that I couldn't get enthused about the project. The project has been on my FAL list for a couple years. I'd pull the embroidery out from time to time; but, that was as far as I went in working on the project! 

I've wanted to document the quilts I've made prior to starting my On Going Projects blog. I haven't made a lot of progress to that end. In posting about "The Village" last month, I thought about Sharyn Craig's class. She said she would make "parts" when she was stuck and sometimes the act of sewing parts helped her move forward with a project.

Remembering her talking about the parts got me to thinking about some leftover parts from a book club quilt, "Remember Me." I had pieced more hour glass units than I used and I thought that the units would the beginning of a good frame for the embroidery. 

 Although there were a number of units, there

Adding the splash of yellow

weren't enough for the entire border. I decided not to make more. Instead, I filled in the spaces with neutral inch and a half squares.

As the border began to take shape, the embroidery no longer felt like a pillow; but, like a small wall hanging. I love it when a piece speaks to me. I only wish I had "heard" it talking years ago!  While, I liked the idea of little splash of yellow, the yellow batik fabric wasn't "it."  

In the end, I selected a package of yellow bias tape that was a good width and a good color. I used the number 10 foot to stitch a narrow zigzag along the edge of the embroidered block. I liked the result so much that I used yellow fabrics for the backing, the sleeve and the binding. 

It is ready to machine quilt. Although, I think I hear a whisper that it wants to have a word embroidered on it too!

I'm planning it to be a book club quilt even though the embroidery isn't a peony flower. In one of our book club books, the female character likes to garden. Peony flowers are a favorite and the male character gives some to the female character. I'm thinking that this project will cover that book. The hour glass blocks have significance to the story line.

Pin basted and ready to quilt

 The book was "The Vinegar Girl," written by Anne Tyler. In high school, my English teacher opened my eyes to Shakespeare. In college, the Shakespeare classes that I took were among my favorite classes. For "the Vinegar Girl," Tyler reworked the story line of "The Taming of the Shrew." 

If you are not familiar with "The Taming of the Shrew," Tyler's book is still a good read. In fact, a reader might not make the connection between Tyler's book and Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew."Having studied "The Taming of the Shrew" in college, it was a hoot to read Tyler's version. 

I'm planning to finish this piece this quarter and I plan that it will be the next piece that I quilt. Currently, I'm quilting the Bonnie Hunter Unity project. I started Unity in March and want to actually finish one of her projects that I've started over the years!