My Favorite Quilt

Did any of you participate in the Spring 2009 Online Quilt Festival? It features the favorite quilts of nearly 600 bloggers! I got so wrapped up with the virtual quilt show that I missed the deadline for including my own post, but here’s the story of my favorite quilt.

In 1991, I could not have been busier. Our little family was outgrowing our first tiny house, which we’d decided to sell it by owner. At the same time, we purchased a lot and started construction on a brand new house about 30 miles away. Every waking moment was focused on our kids, a toddler and new baby, showing one house, checking on construction of the other, cleaning, packing, moving, and oh yeah, starting a new quilt!

My local guild sponsored a quilt challenge that year. I’d been too busy to attend the meeting where the project was proposed, but my friend, Laurie, just knew I wouldn't want to miss out on the fun. Unbeknownst to me, she signed me up as her challenge partner!

The two theme fabrics were a large cabbage rose and green stripe, both of which we had to use in the center block of our quilts.

I adapted a pattern from an 1870's quilt for my center block. The original (below), was made by Mary Parks Lawrence in Russellville, Kentucky. The design has several variations but is commonly called "Pot of Flowers." 

When my block was finished, I swapped with Laurie, who designed and stitched the first border of my quilt, as I did hers. We were limited to elements outlined in the challenge rules (rules and deadlines, just what I needed): four-patch, nine-patch, saw-tooth, dog-tooth, flying geese, appliqué sprays or vines.  

Laurie framed my flowery block with wonderful spiky points, a great counterpoint to the appliqué. Once a design element was used, it couldn’t be repeated, so I appliquéd floral sprays and vines as my final border.

I hand quilted a 1/2" grid in the center block and a 1" grid in the outer border.

Cherry Challenge

44” x 44”

1993

We hung the finished quilt in our living room so it's the first thing you see when entering our home. After 16 years on the wall, it's become gently faded but still serves as a reminder to meet life's challenges with beauty and grace.

It's About Time!

“Well, it’s about time,” I hear you muttering. “You’ve been taunting us with photos of that same red and green quilt since before Christmas!” Quite true… so with apologies for what may now be an anticlimactic reveal, let me tell you all about it.

This is the quilt I made at my first Gwen Marston Beaver Island Retreat. Gwen's topic that year (1997) was Four-Block Quilts. Much of what she taught us is outlined in her subsequent book, Classic Four-Block Applique Quilts: A Back-To-Basics Approach.

Gwen’s approach to design is rooted in the folk art tradition of artists who are self-taught rather than formally trained. She prefers to work organically, cutting shapes “by eye” directly from fabric, instead of using patterns or templates. She’s more likely to measure “by hand” (finger or knuckle) than she is to pick up a ruler. Gwen even designs her layouts right on the fabric, adding, subtracting, and moving pieces around until they look pleasing. That's what makes her quilts so free-spirited and charming!

For the retreat, I brought along four Oak Leaf & Reel blocks to use as the center of my quilt. By making them ahead of time, I was able to focus more on settings, borders, etc., during the workshop itself.

I framed my blocks with appliquéd dogtooth, vine, and berry borders. As Gwen instructed, rather than having the motifs elegantly turn the corners as they would in a traditional quilt, these march boldly off the edge in a far more casual manner.

I can’t tell you how challenging it was for me to work this way. My quilting style back then was stiff and fussy, and even though Gwen assured us there was historical precedence for her laid-back methods, it somehow felt like I was breaking the rules. 

Notice, for example, that the leaves and berries in my border are hand appliquéd, while the vine itself is top stitched by machine. What? Combining hand and machine appliqué in the same quilt? I kept looking over my shoulder for the quilt police!

Over time, I have loosened up and embraced Gwen’s relaxed, no-nonsense approach to quilt making. Her methods aren’t right or wrong, better or worse. They’re just another way of doing things!

Oak Leaf & Reel

30" x 30"

Diane Burdin, 2000

The Christmas That Never Was

Belated holiday greetings to you all! Unfortunately, I missed the festive season this year by spending the entire month of December in hospital/rehab. The closest I got to celebrating was seeing holiday lights out the rear window of an ambulance!

I had a debilitating reaction to an MS medication I’ve taken routinely for years. For some reason, it started giving me high fevers and muscle spasms so severe, they nearly did me in.

Christmas was long over by the time I got home, but we kept a few decorations out to make up for what I missed. With its cheerful colors and folk art charm, this Christmas Tree is always a favorite! It’s a Gwen Marston pattern from the Nov/1993 issue of Ladies Circle Patchwork Quilts Magazine.

William’s Christmas Tree

16” x 22”

 Diane Burdin, 1999

To make my quilt more personal, I swapped Gwen’s tree with one our son, William, doodled when he was six. I also changed the colors to match the funky Japanese fabric I used on the back.

Here’s Gwen’s version. It looks like I copied her quilting to a T.

*Incidentally, I’m on a new medication now and physical therapy is helping restore my strength and ability to walk. Nevertheless, prayers for my continued improvement are welcome. They may be the intangible factor that makes all the difference. Thanks!

Many Hands

Remember the saying, “Many hands make light work.”? I’ll bet it was coined by a quilter. Quilting has always been collaborative in nature, from the “hands on” teaching of the craft one woman to another, 

This might well have been the fate of my Whig Rose quilt, had dear friends not interceded on its behalf. From the start, it was destined to be a collaboration but I could never have predicted how many hands would leave their mark on it with loving stitches.


I received the center block from Chris K. in a 1992 Christmas exchange. As much as I loved the block and wanted it to be the focal point in a quilt, my life was too hectic to start a new project. We just had our second child and were selling one house while building another. Needless to say, the block got set aside.

Once settled in our new home, I decided to meet local quilters by taking a class. Out came the Whig Rose block--a perfect starting point for a class on designing borders. As you can see, Border 1 provides a simple frame around the busy center. Border 2 is the classic half square triangle, with a controlled color layout. For Border 3, I got as far as designing the applique, cutting out leaves and flowers, and basting the pieces in place. Once again, it got set aside, this time for several years.

Life had gotten in the way, BIG TIME! I thought the quilt would never be finished. I asked my friend Barb V. if she would be willing to complete the applique and she agreed. When she returned it to me, I thought the border needed something else. How about berries? Barb took what she now referred to as “our quilt” and dutifully stitched fifty-some berries (Who’s counting? I bet she was!) amongst the appliquéd flowers.

After that, I lost all sense of guilt or shame. I couldn’t bear to have it machine quilted since every other stitch had been done by hand. So, Mary C. was enlisted to hand quilt the Whig Rose. Kathy S. added the binding. Sheila L. shuttled the quilt between volunteers and although she tried that “possession is 9/10 of the law” bit, she returned the precious quilt to me--finally completed, 15 years after its inception.

Is this waaaaay more than you care to know about any of my quilts?