KayLee's Passions: Mona's quilt - Lug of Hope

Lug of hope was a long time design project, and an even longer time putting it all together. It was a labor of love, and I grew more making this quilt than in any one piece prior.

When Mona first started trying to get pregnant, I decided to design a hope quilt. The sentiment was like those old fashioned hope chests. A work that encompassed the desire to see someone's life come together the way they planned. This was not for any specific child, although, I finished just after Maya was born. (I made her another blanket).

My very first piece of the design was of a 3x4 grid with a swirl. (you can just barely see the sketched swirl on that grid below).

I was interested in circles, so I began studying bubbles. I wanted to capture the roundness and transparency of a bubble. Through my searching, I found the photo that I had taken of Leena years below. Those bubbles were in the perfect placement.

Now when Mona got wind that I might design something for her, she showed me the colors that she was interested in. Felts in cream, a pale grey, and a mottled green. I carried swatches of those felts in my purse for months. Even drug them on one of the quilt shop hops. I was looking for and buying anything in that realm of color.

I had this great puffy faux lambswool, a grey on white elephant print (which I dyed cream, and then didn't use), and piles of greens.

Mona is really into biology, and fish. I scoured pictures of interesting beetles, bugs, swordfish, and even those fish with the lures on the ends of their noses. None of them really looked quiltlike.

I took the elephant from the dyed fabric, photocopied and enlarged it. The bubbles looked neat coming out of his trunk, but this just wasn't the essence of Mona.

Lug is the yard ornament that she gave us for a housewarming gift years ago. He sits by the window under Paul's computer chair. I was inspired, and took a ton of photos. I sketched him out, had it enlarged, and viola. A subject for the quilt. The bubble placement would work, and so would the swoosh. Now how was I going to get the whole thing to look like it was in water.

I drew the placement (just an outline of Lug for this), and transferred it to freezer paper (thinking I would paper piece). I drew in the 'current lines', originally each block had the lined going perpendicular to the one adjacent. This was to give it a patchwork look. I later decided to connect the lines, and any given line sticks with the same fabric up until the swoosh, which is where the values go from light to dark. This was intended to look like a ray of light shining from above.

I used water soluble paper for the paper pieced stabilizer. I used the freezer paper drawing to cut out each template. Iron it to the fabric, rough cut, then notch. Iron the turned under edges, then pin to the stabilizer. Once I had a section about hand sized, I would sew it to secure on the stabilizer.

The real trick was that after the 'patchy' thought, I never got rid of the idea of creating it in blocks. I wasn't bad, but I wasn't exactly accurate. Some of those blocks didn't perfectly match up in the end.

The final product is my pride and joy. Not the luminescence I envisioned, and I would make some value changes in the fish if I did it again, but definitely a cherished project.

Below, you will see the backing (with the quilting), and bits and pieces of the design work.