LOVE Quilt
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Category Archives: Quilting
Oklahoma Windsong Quilt
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Baseball Suite in a Major Key
A little late for Christmas, but worth the wait. Last night, Carl received his belated X-mas present. Anne has been working on this project pretty much since Dave and Maren’s wedding. She finished them this week and mailed them off before the storm hit town. The following is Carl’s lovely thank you:
At about 8:00 last night, one piece of mail fell through the slot. The postal service is hurting. I made sure there was nothing else and opened the door. Oh Boy, a package! And WHAT a package! These Cub Scorecard Quilted Blocks are FABULOUS. Thank you. With baseball in limbo right now, this really helped my feelings for the game. The artist is Otis Shepard. He and his wife, Dorothy, were accomplished graphic artists from the 1930’s through 1969 (when Otis died), in Billboards. I have a very interesting book about their lives, and it’s loaded with their work. I kind of fell back in love with Otis’ scorecards when I found a 1965 scorecard, scored by my dad, and it was a No-Hitter! I found it when they were moving from Illinois to Colorado. He had no memory of the game, being a Hard drinking Cubs fan, but it got me looking at the older Otis designed scorecards. From 1970 through the early 1980’s they did some knockoffs of his work. They were good, but as I found out, not nearly as good as Otis’. Then about 15 years ago I ran into a fellow baseball enthusiast at a Card shop. I told him about my love of the old Cubs and White Sox scorecards, and he said he had a bunch of both. I traded him some cards he needed, and I had all the Cub scorecards from 1954 through 1969, except 1955 and 1958, my birth year. Another X-mas a few years back you got me the 1958. But these quilted versions are priceless and with your choices of baseball quotes and phrasing on the backs, you’ve hit a GRAND SLAM Home Run. Doff your cap, Babe. (I’m not flirting; I’m using a phrase to conjure up Babe Ruth).
Below are the five quilt-lets side-by-side with the original Cubs program covers that inspired them. The captions below each pair appear on the back of each quilt. I think that Anne did a great job on this project and I’m glad that it was so well received. She is already hard at work on the first of three baby quilts.
Baseball Suite in a Major Key—For Carl, a Fantastic Fan!
It might be… it could be… IT IS! A Homerun! —Harry Carey
Chicago …Stormy, husky, brawling, City of Big Shoulders… —Carl Sandburg
He goes back, back to the wall. He jumps and… He makes the catch! He robs the homerun!
Son, what kind of pitch would you like to miss? —Dizzy Dean
MAD Quilt
Alice and Anne Holding-Up the MAD Quilt (Front) 
MAD Quilt (Back)
This last week has been all about Dave and the above quilting gallery aside, which is really about Anne, we decided that we needed to show Dan some love. To that purpose, we made a Facetime call to Dan and Brit. A lot of the conversation revolved around work. Dan’s union had threatened to strike this week, but the strike was averted by a last-minute agreement. According to Dan though, there is quite a bit of grumbling about the agreement within the rank-and-file and the agreement might get voted down. In order to avoid the uncomfortable situation of having to cross a possible picket line, Dan took a non-union job for a few weeks. Unsolicited, Dan landed this job from his former Macy’s Christmas windows work. This job also has to do with in-store displays, but has nothing to do Macy’s. He learned that the company who he had worked for suddenly and unexpectedly lost the contract for the Macy’s gig. This job is in Long Island City, a part of Queens. Dan has taken to riding his bicycle there, in order to save on parking. Brit is currently deciding between two job offers and hopes to pick the best one. They are both able to devote more time to working outside the house now that they have settled into their new apartment and have finished their big projects, a new bed and the chuppah. Speaking of the chuppah, they plan on selling it, maybe in their old neighborhood in Crown Heights.
Between biking to work and working eleven-hour days, Dan was pretty tired this weekend. On Friday, they ended up watching the new movie Dune, over at Brit’s parent’s house in Queens, but they didn’t start watching this two-hour plus movie until after ten. I’m not sure if Dan was awake through the entire feature. This part of the conversation segued into a discussion of her parents two dogs. They have an older and crafty small dog and a younger, but highly excitable young dog. During dinner the older dog likes to go to the front door and start barking at nothing. This behavior triggers the younger and bigger dog to go crazy at the front door. The family is forced to intervene, go to the front door and settle the animals down. While they are doing this the older dog sneaks back to the table and proceeds to climb up on a chair and begin eating off of someone’s plate. They’re on to this trick now and watch that tricky dog carefully.
Presentation of the MAD Quilt
Pictured is Anne presenting the MAD quilt to Maren and David. This scene occurred at the brunch on the morning after the wedding. Anne had finished the quilt only 24 hours earlier, on the morning of the wedding. There is no minute like the last minute. This quilt is the largest one that Anne has ever made and required many hours of work to complete. It turned out beautifully and Anne should be very proud of herself.
Falling Into Fall
Red October has arrived! The Saint Louis Cardinals postseason playoffs begin today. Having snagged a wildcard berth the Redbirds must endure the single elimination Wildcard session to advance. Today, the Cards face the Dodgers in LA. The winner of tonight’s game will go on to play in the divisional playoff series. I hope that Saint Louis is victorious, otherwise it will be a very short post season this year.
Meanwhile back on the ranch, cooler weather has ushered in more of a Fall-like feel. We’ve turned off the AC, at least for a while and opened some of the windows. After we went to bed last night, through the relative stillness of the night, we both heard the short chirp of a police siren, probably pulling over someone. I joked to Anne that the cops were coming for her, because (wait for it) she sewed a crooked seam. She has been working hot and heavy on the MAD quilt, for which she only has a week left to work on it. Last week she had assembled and quilted all sixteen approximately 24” square block sandwiches. Because of the quilt design that she has selected these were only open-faced sandwiches, there was no backs on them. As of today, she has combined those sixteen smaller blocks into four mega-blocks that now also have the back applied. Her next step will be to combine all of the blocks into one king sized. The steps after that will be to first fashion and then attach a border. I’m sure that there is a myriad of other steps, but I am not privy to all of that. If only she would speak to me about her quilting. If only …