What Was I Thinking?

I don't usually think up names for my quilts. As I'm working on them, they are "Guenveur's William Morris Quilt," or "Sherry's Whackie Girl" or "Joe's Quilt." If the intended recipient hasn't been determined, and the blocks came from a swap, then I call the quilt by the name of the swap, i.e., "Coffee and Cream," "Hot Summer Hearts"; you get the idea. Presently I've got "Ruth's Blocks" on the wall, "Jill's Hot Summer Hearts" on the floor, "Swap Hand Dye Baskets" on a flap of the wall, not to mention the "Leader-Ender Jewel Box." I think I said before that I like to move around from project to project and not stay on any one thing for a long time.

Years ago the Fat Quarters group made a comfort quilt for a member who was dealing with breast cancer. Her friend suggested the pattern, and everyone made four units, the equivalent of a whole block, and someone put them together. We used Japanese fabrics, and the result was stunning. It was such a knock-out that I decided nothing would do but I should make one for myself. The name of the pattern was "Indian [Something]" and I had a FQ CW pack that would be just the thing. There are 20 blocks, four units each, to the quilt. I quickly acquired background and borders fabrics, and busily appliqued the circles and then cut them into quarters. I was going to White Oak and took the project along. With considerable stress and more bad words than I usually utter, one block got finished. It took for ever. The whole kit and kaboodle got stuffed into a sack and put away. "What was I thinking when I started this?" I wondered. No answer available.

When Turbo was over this week, we got to talking about UFOs and I mentioned this long-banished quilt and again wondered what I had been thinking when I started it. After she left, I dug it out of the cabinet and reconsidered. It's been at least five years, but I knew exactly where it was. My mistake, I think, was undertaking to make one full block at a time. I should have worked one step at a time for each component. I've started it up again; there are 76 remaining quarter-blocks to do, and I'm presently preparing and attaching the "claws" to the triangles. Takes a while. But at least I know what I'm doing and I have a plan. And, like Tanya's infamous "When-oh-when" quilt, this one has a name: "What Was I Thinking?"