A Quilt Tale

Thirty one years ago the local quilt guild created a quilt to be auctioned off for the benefit of the local volunteer emergency services unit. The quilt eventually made its way to the King Ranch. Photos exist of it hanging in a hunt camp on the Ranch but the quilt seems to have disappeared. Here is an original picture of the quilt:

Stories about the quilt have been circulating for many years. One that I found particularly endearing was that the quilt was put on a bus for a trip back to Kingwood and never made it back here. I love the idea of it offloaded by mistake in some small Texas town and given to some tired kid waiting for another bus to another small town until worn and much loved it now lives in someone's home as a much loved keepsake of a long ago journey.

Call me sentimental.

A new library is being built here and the Guild was considering what it could do to contribute to the new building. Since the old quilt was MIA, a new Kingwood Quilt is being created to be displayed on a wall on a second floor wall in the atrium for everyone to enjoy.

A small group from one of the Bees got together under the leadership of that go-getter Margo to start working on it and your correspondent decided to participate.

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

The original had lots of hand appliqued scenes of Kingwood activiies with a limited color palette.

The new quilt is being built around a laser cut and fused applique of the Kingwood logo, that intricate brown woodland scene in the middle of the quiilt photo above.

Then we are adding a lot of blocks of things that you see in the woods around here like all the wildflowers,animals, trees, birds and bugs. Someone has already made a beautiful hummingbird, another some glorious pinks and, in an extreme case of irony, someone who was recently bitten by a raccoon, made a beautiful block of a raccoon.

Oh, and did I mention, we need to make two of everything. One for the Kingwood library quilt, and one for a quilt for the Quilt Guild auction next April.

My assignment is to make blocks of a ciccada and a golden silk orb weaver spider.

Yup, I got the bugs!

This past weekend I decided to bite the bullet and get cracking on at least one set of blocks. I chose to work on the spider. Here's what the spider looks like:

I had a embroidery chart for a spider for inspiration.

Then I went to my patchwork books to see if aything inspired me and found this block called a spider web.

Then I dug into the box of fused fabrics, colored pencils, dyes and fabric marking pens I sometimes play with and thought these would be useful.

Oh, then I remember I was supposed to incorporate one of two fabrics, a light blue or a light beige, into the blocks.

After much fussing around these are the blocks I came up witI think I prefer the one on the left (less creepy) though when I made the blocks I preferred the one on the right (I like that back right leg stretching for the web). I fused all the fabrics and sewed them down with silk threads. I left the edges raw in anticipation that over time they may fray which would make them more realistic.

Now that I am over the hump, I just may take another stab at them for a more realistic looking rendition. If the others in the group think these look too goofy, and I hope they can be open enough to say so, I will definitely take another stab at lthem.

On to the ciccada. I think I already have this one figured out... I know it will not have a pieced background and the applique will not be as intricate... at least i do not plan on showing its little, teeny, tiny, legs.

Sweet Sadie's Update: Still waiting on the final Health Department Inspection. There is no way to hurry them up but I wish they would!

For more on the quilt please see this link.