Relatively Speaking

Wait a minute! Didn't I just post this picture a week or so ago? Well, yes. But I'm posting it again because (a) the pattern has arrived and (b) there's a little story to tell. And, due to the complexity (12 complicated pieced blocks, 20 appliqué units), this project is going to be around for a long time.

First, someone asked about the pattern. I found it at Needles and Pins, located somewhere in Oz. I want to give an unsolicited shout-out to Kaye, who was lovely to work with. She sent the pattern very quickly. It wasn't inexpensive -- $25 American plus postage from Australia -- but considering the intricacy of the pattern, that doesn't seem really out of line price-wise. I wandered around Kaye's site a bit and, friends, if complicated patterns are your thing, you'd think you'd died and gone to heaven. 

Now for the story. When I was sixteen years old, this truly wonderful thing happened to me. I became an aunt! The year before my small family had been halved. My sister got married and moved to a different state (not terribly far, but still) and my father died very suddenly. It was just me and my mother left at home, and that was the least favorable combination among the four of us.

Anyway, in April of that year, my niece, Susan, was born, and she's been a blessing to me ever since. Joe and I lived far away during most of her and her sister's growing up years, but the connections remained strong, and when Susan graduated high school, I told her to stop calling me "Aunt Nancy" because I wasn't old enough to have such a grown-up person for a niece. She then proceeded to always introduce me to her friends -- of which there were countless -- as "My Relative, Nancy." From time to time I'll find a greeting card "To A Wonderful Relative" that I'll send her. When I posted the previous picture of The Aunts' Quilt, Susan opined, "If you're going to make that, you'll have to call it The Relative's Quilt." She's right.

I'm going to make it. I'm not going to use Gina Gregory's color scheme. I'd like to use my regular blue-purple-green-rose scheme, but those scraps are depleting quickly. I'm thinking of starting with a bag of scraps I came by from my friend Pat -- all citrusy colors -- I think that would be fun and make a bright quilt, but I'm afraid that the whole time I was making it I'd feel as though I was wearing someone else's clothes.

Writing this, the solution has become obvious: Purchase more fabric! In purples and blues and greens and mauves and roses. Thank you for helping me reach this conclusion.