Wednesday, December 12, 2007

"Drinking Gourd"




When I saw the Drinking Gourd block in Barbara Brackman's book on quilts and the Underground Railroad I knew I had to use it. I also wanted to make a quilt with a "butternut and blue" color scheme.
(Historical note: "follow the drinking gourd" was a folk song. The drinking gourd was the Big Dipper. Slaves headed north on the Underground Railroad would look for that constellation.)

I volunteered to coordinate a quilt to raffle as a fundraiser for the Illinois Library Association. The days got away from me and I never got around to contacting other quilting librarians. A call from the ILA fundraising committee chair saying that they'd like the quilt in January got me going. I made the entire top myself. The blocks are 12". The middle border is made from the cutaway triangles of the flying geese. The top measures 92 x 92. Yes, I'm sending this out to be quilted!

Dawn http://dquilts.blogspot.com/ also loves this block. She and I have made a pile of 8" blocks, though knowing her she's a lot farther along with them than I am. We're getting together next week so we can compare.

7 comments:

  1. Don't worry - I'm not any farther along that I was! Oh I like how you used those triangles! I've been saving and sewing mine up and was going to make a mini quilt - but now I think I want to make a border with them!

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  2. This quilt is gorgeous! Welcome to blogland, it's very nice here!

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  3. Lovely quilt. Welcome to the world of quilting blogs. Please let us know how long it takes you to be pulled in.

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  4. Dawn mentioned that you are making this quilt. It is wonderful!

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  5. This quilt is just beautiful. I love your striking color combination!

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  6. This is gorgeous - both pattern and colour :)

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