As you may have guessed, I’m not the only one who made a mosaic.
I love Mary’s inspiration so much that it intimidates me a bit. It’s one thing to figure out what someone likes and just go for it, but my tastes are similar to Mary’s. So the pressure is on to make something really fabulous.
Wish me luck!
I’ve written already about my love of quilts made up of a single block, by which I meant a single block, repeated many times in a grid to make a big quilt top. (Or an equally awesome not-so-big quilt.)
Today I’m going to add another entry to that distinguished group, which I can only describe as a wholecloth with single floating star block. Or perhaps it’s technically a star quilt, with white borders that can be measured in feet or meters? Take your pick:
I love this vintage-looking quilt by Me? A Mom? to pieces. It was sized for a toddler bed, which makes it seem especially genius to me. I know I often get excited about the idea of going whole hog and spending months and years on that perfect set of 49 (or more) hugely intricate blocks for that special, once-in-a-lifetime quilt, but let’s be practical here. If you responsibilities go beyond crafting for a small child into the realm of, say, caring for a small child, you just don’t have the kind of time to make dozens of spiderweb blocks every time your little one outgrows a piece of furniture.
Unless you do, in which case you are a superhero, and I’m not sure I want to be talking to you.
At any rate, there’s something to be said about a quilt that seems to speak to its function. The simplicity of all that white coupled with the the jaunty color placement just screams childhood to me, even though there’s plenty of adult appeal here. And while I admire lots of fancy handiwork as much as anybody, it’s a breath of fresh air to see a quilt that isn’t too labored.
I can see this quilt getting lots of love in the future. Better yet, I can see it getting lots of love now.
This isn’t specifically a Sweet Valley High craft project. But. If you ever subjected yourself to the historical-fiction weirdness that were the Sweet Valley Sagas, you may remember this book, which was ostensibly the history of the Wakefields, but was really a re-imagining of 100 years or so of American history in which Liz and Jess meddle and manipulate their way through the ages:
(Oh, that cover art. Francine Pascal, why must you always prey upon my love for pastels?)
And if you have the weird head fro details that I somehow have when it comes to bad young adult fiction, you may remember that when 1800’s Elizabeth (Elisabeth?) becomes a hobo because Jess has, naturally, run off to become the hottest bareback rider in any circus in the history of the world, Liz/Lis wraps all of her stuff up in an evening star quilt.
Leave it to the Sweet Valley franchise to make it a really sexy sounding quilt, and not something normal like Log Cabin, or Drunkard’s Path. But then, it would be very un-Elizabeth to sleep under a Drunkard’s Path quilt, unless she’s on her way to the Jungle Prom.
An image search for evening star quilt brings up a number of different things, but most look like this:
Now, this was made around 1929, so it post-dates Liz’s prairie adventures, but isn’t it uncanny that it matches her “sparkling, aquamarine eyes”?
I have too much going on, sewing-wise, to start a new quilt right now, but if one of these is on my bed in six months, we’ll have all learned just how obsessive I can get.
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