My second husband had been a Navy pilot in World War II. A bit of wisdom that he brought with him from his Navy days was an expression that no doubt was impressed upon the young flyer's during that time. It was, "plan your work and work your plan". My daughter and I applied that adage to a project we collaborated on this past week-end.
I wanted to commemorate my second grandson's graduation from high school and his entry into college by presenting him with a quilt. My daughter has a talent for color and design and has made many beautiful quilts. When I approached her with the idea she just took it and her mind went to work. We conferred via email on various ideas and also consulted him as to favorite colors, etc. As we had some thoughts from him as well as ideas from her, it all began to take form. She presented me with her idea of how to use blue and stripes as he said those two were appealing to him.
Then she had to get some time off from her work so she talked to the three lawyers she works for and they all agreed on two successive days, a Thursday and Friday. Those two days were last week. Adding on Saturday and Sunday we had four whole days to devote to this project. Setting all other things aside we committed to this time and on the appointed day she appeared at my house loaded with boxes of cut pieces , sewing machine, additional cloth and other necessities of life.
We got right to work, sewing and cutting additional pieces needed for the pattern. As each long piece was sewn together we placed it on the bed and went on to the next one, then some adjustments had to be made as to how they would be placed pleasingly along side each other. It would not look good to have two of the same patterns too close together. Once that was established I did the ironing and made sure all of the seams were pressed in the same direction. Next came the borders for each long piece, after they were sewn on, the outside border was added. In the final analysis we had a fine, extra long quilt, which looked masculine and pleasing to the eye.
Not one to stop with the ordinary, my daughter, always thinking outside of the box came up with the idea of putting some of the design on the backing of the quilt. After trying out several backing materials we could not feel satisfied with any one piece of cloth. So, off we went to the fabric store. Wandering through all of the fabrics I came upon a bolt of backing material 120 inches wide and a beautiful red cotton. I called to her to come and look at this find. She held her fabric samples up to this and out came her favorite descriptive word for something that "works". She said "that makes it POP doesn't it?". And indeed it did. We had been thinking of something in blue and did a complete turn around with the red.
Getting back home and to work, at her direction I helped sew some different sized blocks to go on the red backing. They were just a suggestion of what was on the front but when she had finished the back could be the front it was so beautiful. Feeling very satisfied with our creative endeavor we carefully folded the front and then the back of this reversible quilt. The final sandwiching of the quilt will take place when our machine quilter has it in her hands. She has agreed to do this and when we can make another plan to take it to her we can say we have made our reversible quilt.
So, we planned our work and then we worked our plan. Actually, we worked it better than we had originally planned. My daughter who always thinks outside of the box took the plans to a higher level with the reversible back. I think her nephew, my grandson, will be pleased to own a reversible quilt made by two women who love him and have watched him grow into a responsible, creative young man in his own right.
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