Decades Quilt Top

I can’t stop thinking about trees.  I learn so many lessons from them:  deep roots, fruit, shelter,  No matter the variety, I’m amazed by their roots, their height and strength, and the reach of their branches.  How, exactly, does the genetic code of their seeds allow them to reach towering heights, live for decades, and continue to produce trees in perpetuity?  Season after season, year after year, for decades.  I created my Decades quilt design as a tribute to trees, as well as the lessons they teach us.  Today’s photos are of my Decades quilt top.

This year I watched a remarkable story unfold in my backyard, featuring my decades old cherry tree at the center.  Some sixty years old, I have never seen a tree put so much energy into producing fruit as it did this year.  As stewards of the tree for the last 18 years, we’ve worked to extend its life.  And never, in all those years, have I seen so much fruit.

Scarred and with branches drooping closer to the ground every year, we know our tree is old.  A hollow in the center of the base of the trunk, present when we purchased the property, has grown deeper.  We’re battling decay.  Perched on it’s sturdy limbs, my children spent countless hours in that tree.  We hosted parties beneath its branches, and enjoyed all our outdoor dinners there.  Now we protect it carefully.  No climbing.  I spent countless hours beneath it’s branches.  It was my hiding place for taking a deep breath to recenter and gather my thoughts.  In the spring, I spend time every day marveling at the smell of blossoms and the buzzing of hundreds of bees.  A tree dressed in promise.  Oh how I love this tree!

So imagine our sorrow when, on an early summer morning, a terribly loud cracking sound penetrated the house.  Pulling open the curtains, I could hardly comprehend it.  Half of the tree had collapsed.  Our dear, dear tree.  Thus began weeks of preserving as many cherries as possible.  Cutting wood.  Cleaning up.  And certainly blinking back tears at the now gaping hole in this old friend.

While studying the rings on the massive limb we lost, I found myself pondering the decades of blessings it had offered:  shelter, fruit, beauty, to name a few.  They reminded me about resilience and bending with the seasons, and producing good fruit, and directing energy to what matters most.  So close to collapsing, yet covered in good, sweet fruit.  This gave me fresh perspective as I near the decade mark on a particular journey in my life.  I want to be like my tree:  covered in good fruit no matter how weary I feel.  I want to deepen my roots, expand the reach of my efforts, and offer my best gifts.  

The Decades quilt celebrates all this with a large, modern take on the tree of life, on fruit, and framed by a vibrant border.  I wanted to explore the border of my Awake quilt a little more, and this was my perfect opportunity.

I shared my Come Round Right quilt top earlier this week.  Like it, I will also be teaching a class on making the Decades quilt at Sew Simply Stitched in 2025.  Decades utilizes several different piecing skills, including unique Dresden plate blocks, half square triangles, half rectangle triangles, and foundation paper piecing.  All of these skills will be taught in class and we are going to have FUN.  The retreat always fills up on the first day, so register right away if you’re interested.  I hope you will join us!

 

 

Come Round Right Quilt Top

What happens when life goes terribly wrong?  When someone takes a turn and everything changes?  What if you’re not sure you will ever be happy again?  Have you ever been on a journey like that?  I’m guessing we all have, to some degree.  I believe we all end up taking a long trip to places we wish to avoid.  The question is, what comes of it?  While pondering these questions, I started sewing.  This is what came of it:  my Come Round Right quilt top.

What becomes of us?  For me, this journey has been the undoing AND the making of me.  Funny how that works.  I’m approaching the ten year mark of a journey that still stretches into the horizon with no obvious arrival point.  I don’t know when or where it ends.  But I do know this:  I am learning to thrive IN the journey, IN the hard, IN the waiting.

Do you recognize the lyrics of a favorite Shaker hymn?  Part of the lyrics read, “When true simplicity is gained, to bow and to bend we shan’t be ashamed; To turn, turn, will be a delight. Till by turning, turning we come round right.”  And that’s where the name of this quilt originates.  In the bowing and the bending which accompany adversity, we learn so much.  We recognize our weakness, ignorance, inadequacy.  But eventually, with persistence and hope and great faith, we turn and turn some more, and finally “come round right.”  It made sense to portray this turning in Dresden plate blocks, which is where the quilt started.

Come Round Right is a creative experience in using the Dresden plate quilt block to create flowers and leaves in a large composition framed by a border of “stems and leaves”.  These stems and leaves are also a nod to the number 10 – representing my 10 year presence on this road.

This quilt design is simple but also requires a bit of courage.  It’s a really fun way to design your own composition and use lots of favorite fabrics.

What did I discover as my Come Round Right quilt top came together?  I discovered a lighthearted, whimsical, cheerful celebration of growth.  Exhaling, I stood back in wonder when I finished.  This is not a quilt about what’s been fenced in or fenced out, which I portrayed with my black and white backgrounds.  This is a quilt about thriving.  That’s what I discovered.  Bring on the next ten years!

I’m happy to share that I’ll be teaching Come Round Right at the Sew Simply Stitched quilt retreat in 2025.  Registration opens November 1st, and usually sells out in the first 24 hours.  I hope you’ll join us!  The pattern will be available in a few weeks.

This journey!  I am so grateful for it.  For both of them, I guess.  I’m grateful for the journey that ripped me open and prepared me to learn.  And this journey of sewing my story which teaches me about my experiences in new and redemptive ways.

Oak Leaf Applique

The weather is lovely where I live.  Although it’s October, we’re still experiencing highs in the 70s and 80s every day, yet I have perfectly crisp morning air to enjoy on my daily walks.  My current favorite is watching the golden morning sun break across the valley as I walk.  In the mountains the leaves are colorful; in my neighborhood they’re largely green, with a little bright yellow sprinkled here and there.  Flowers are still blooming, and the sky is the perfect blue of October.  I love all of it, but I think the reds and oranges of oak leaves are my favorite.  After my walk yesterday I decided to start a fall sewing project.  A little oak leaf applique has begun!

Do you do much fall sewing?  I realized that I love summer and patriotic sewing, and Christmas, but I don’t do as much fall-themed quilting.  When I do, I especially love to push the boundaries of the traditional “fall” color scheme.  My Color Stack quilt remains my favorite (pattern here), but I also love my On a Whim Quilt with it’s ice blue and gray.  If I were committing to a fall quilt right now, I think this free Autumn Bliss pattern looks fun.

This project?  My oak leaf applique beginning will be another slow sewing project.  I started with sketching some leaves, all 7-8 inches tall.  I’d like to play with rectangular blocks.  It could grow, or remain small.  Time will tell.  It’s nice to be playing without committing to a large project.  Creative exploration is a joyful, healthy thing!  So for now, I plan to explore color with these applique blocks.  What are you working on?  I hope it makes you happy!

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