Something new for me

[Rob Wick]

Some of you might be aware that my wife, Cheryl is a quilter. Every year for a while now we have gone to the International Quilt Show in Paducah, Ky., which is the Super Bowl of quilt shows. It draws people from all over the world. They estimate that over 30,000 quilters attend.

As you might expect, this year's show was cancelled. It was a disappointment to us both, not only because we also get to see Gene C. and his lovely wife, Joy, but it's something we look forward to each year since we don't go anywhere while on vacation. It's a nice day trip, although I do admit to some trepidation when Cheryl enters Hancock's of Paducah, which is a huge fabric store there. Given the number of books I own, I don't say much to her, but just the other day we donated four 13-gallon trash bags of fabric that she was never going to use to Goodwill. We still have 15 plastic containers left. (Sidenote: you haven't lived until you've witnessed hundreds of otherwise rational women clawing their way through piles of fabric that has been marked down. It's better than watching shoppers on Black Friday).

My support for Cheryl's quilting could best be described in the way that Winston Churchill described his support for religion. He said he was a flying buttress, supporting it from the outside. I have no earthly idea how to sew, nor have I ever wanted to learn. I couldn't tell a feed dog from a basset hound (if you don't know what a feed dog is, google it). I've always told Cheryl that I felt she had the ability to produce a quilt of her own design and to enter it in a show. In order to help that along, I purchased a design software program called Electric Quilt 8. It's not a cheap program, but it is the best on the market.

Cheryl's reaction to it has been less than enthusiastic. She's never been one to embrace trying new things. In order that we might get some use out of it, I decided, now that I have a great deal of free time on my hands, to sit down and give it a whirl. It took me a few weeks to get the hang of the program, and I'm sure there's much more I have to learn, but I've actually been designing quilts. Cheryl is right now making one, which I'll share as soon as it's finished.

This is all one long introduction to a quilt I designed that might appeal to some here. Civil War quilting is a major sub-genre of the field, and there are entire fabric lines dedicated to the Civil War. I've been toying around with a design that I finally finished. I call it "Regiments on Parade". The first vertical row features a block called "Jacob's Ladder" and represents slavery and the desire to be free. The second block is called "Clay's Choice" and honors Henry Clay. The third block is called "Mr. Lincoln's Logs." I purposefully chose some very bold fabric for it, given the rug and wallpaper in Lincoln's Springfield home. Finally, the fourth block is called "Calico Puzzle" which I found in a book of CW blocks and was originally published in the 1930s in the Kansas City Star, which published quilt patterns from 1928 up to the 1960s.

Cheryl hasn't started it yet, but I can't wait to see how it turns out. I'm not sure that my designs would ever be good enough to be entered in a show like Paducah, but that's not the point for me. My writing has pretty much dried up to the point of non-existence, and this gives me something creative to do that I actually enjoy. If you want to see a larger picture of the design, just click on it and you will be directed to another site where you can see it enlarged.

Best
Rob