Jerica's Quilt

One quilt often inspires another. That was the case with a quilt that I made for Sarah when she moved into her first apartment. After she chose a pattern from my quilting library, we hit the quilt shops in search of brown, gold, and cream fabrics with musical undertones. The quilt turned out beautifully and Sarah hung it proudly in her apartment.

          That’s where Jerica saw it. Sarah and Jerica have been friends since they were in elementary school. They were roommates their freshman year at WSU.

           Sarah told me that Jerica loved that quilt, and admired it whenever she visited. Eventually, Jerica asked me if I’d make the same quilt for her, out of different colors, if her mom bought the fabric. It would be a gift from her parents for her 21^st birthday. Of course, I said yes.

          In the spring, my favorite neightborhood fabric/quilting store, Pacific Fabrics went out of business. Jerica, her mom, Sarah, and I took advantage of the big closing sale. We grabbed a shopping cart and filled it with eighteen bolts of purple, brown, and cream fabrics. Jerica and her mom hadn’t ever shopped for fabric before, but Sarah and I showed them the ropes and they caught on quickly.

          Spring turned into summer. I had planned to work on the quilt over the summer, and just barely made that deadline, by cutting all the blocks out as August ended. That’s also when I panicked and remembered to make an appointment for time on a long arm quilting machine.

The first time available was on October 4. That would work. Jerica’s birthday is in December. It would also light a fire under me to get moving.

Sarah and Jerica left for college. I wish I could say that I got right back to work on the quilt, but I didn’t. The blocks sat neatly stacked on my sewing counter, while other things took priority.

In mid-September, I started slicing the curves into the blocks, then stitched along the curves to create new blocks.  I sprinkled the smaller accent squares onto those blocks. Karla Alexander author of Color Shuffle, explained her process simply and accurately. I slapped the blocks up onto my design wall as I finished them. I sent Jerica and Sarah pictures of the quilt in progress.

Once I got all the blocks up on my design wall, I was glad I hadn’t waited until the absolute last minute. Over the next week, I’d arrange and rearrange the blocks almost every time I walked past them on the way to my car, trying to get it balanced, and trying to make sure that the same fabrics weren’t right next to each other. Sometimes it felt like one of those square puzzles that you slide numbers around in trying to get them in order. At last, my Rubik’s cube of a quilt top was arranged to my liking.

Let the piecing begin! I joined the blocks into rows, and then joined the rows into a quilt top.

          Next step, I started doodling possible quilting patterns to quilt on it. I had quilted Sarah’s quilt with swirls. That went well with the music theme, but I wanted something different for Jerica’s quilt. I went to sleep with no plan. I woke up with a few very tentative possibilities.

At Trains, Fabrics, Etc. I helped the quilt shop owner load the quilt top, batting, and backing onto the long arm quilting machine. I picked out a variegated thread of browns and cream. I looked over the diagonal rows of curves. Should I echo the curves? That seemed too obvious. Should I quilt angular, geometric lines to contrast against the curves? No, I liked the curves. I wanted them to stand out.

I grasped the handles of the quilting machine, and relaxed, confident that something would come to me. As always, it did: vines with curling fronds climbing up the diagonal rows. They would be flowing and curvy, and simple enough to be forgiving. But best of all, this design would match the mood of the quilt.

As I quilted, other quilters who came into the shop came by to see what I was working on, and offered their compliments. It’s not a traditional quilt, definitely more contemporary. Brown and purple are also not usually paired together, but in this quilt, they play well together.

Two layers of fabric with batting sandwiched in between, held together with thread. It really was a quilt now. It looked fantastic.

I had to keep reminding myself that it was Jerica’s quilt, not mine. I continued reminding myself of that as I stitched the sleeve and binding on. The label reminded me again.

On Saturday, we celebrated Jerica’s birthday early (she was a Christmas baby) at Stanley & Seafort’s restaurant overlooking Tacoma. When she pulled her quilt out of a matching pillowcase, her face lit up with a big smile. Happy birthday Jerica!

Laura Keolanui Stark is glad that so many of her quilts have found happy homes. She can be reached at stark.laura.k@gmail.com.