Quilt 3 (2006-2007): 213 x 213 cm (84″ x 84″).  Commercial cottons, cotton thread, polyester batting, backed with heavy black Italian cotton shirting.  Paper foundation block construction.  After “Jewel Squares Window Blind” in Kaffe Fassett‘s Glorious Patchwork (Clarkson Potter 1997).  Machine-pieced and -quilted on a Singer 201-3 (made in Clydebank, Scotland in 1952).

This is my third quilt. Scott and I photographed it at the Thread Bear quilt shop (now closed) in North Van. Thread Bear had a magnificent and enormous second-floor studio-classroom with cathedral ceilings, large high tables, floor to ceiling windows and a view of a pristine salmon stream babbling through the forest outside.

This quilt took a long time to complete. I grew impatient with the quilting and that shows, especially in the middle of the quilt. It’s sloppy craftsmanship, but it’s just fine for snuggling on the couch.

I based this quilt on a pattern I found in Glorious Patchwork by Kaffe Fassett (Clarkson Potter 1997).  The book contains a pattern for a foundation block patchwork blind in a rich assortment of reds.  I wanted to make something larger, so I enlarged the blocks onto tracing paper and decided to use blues.  A few spots of red pay homage to the original.

Foundation block work was interesting.  I sewed the seams in each block right through the tracing paper and then, after sewing the blocks together into the quilt, tore the paper off piece by piece.  I had to leave some strips here and there because removing them would have involved tearing some very stubborn seams.  There’s a faint and strangely comforting crackle in the quilt from time to time.