I didn't think of it as a Mother's Day thing until later, but the other night I really got going on a project to assemble some quilt blocks my mother acquired somewhere. And it brought back memories of when she couldn't sleep so sewed window drapes, quilts, and clothes in the middle of the night.

The pattern is Dresden Plate, and the fabrics look like 1940s, maybe 1930s, possibly even the 1950s, but Jeri will be able to date them for me.



It takes me a long time to implement a project like this because I agonize over things like colors and proportion. There are 11 blocks: one is missing, and this might be why my mother didn't finish this quilt. It took me some time to decide what to do about it. I thought about making a plate block with my own memorable fabrics, but I doubt my ability to come up with the same shape/size/workmanship. So I decided to have a blank piece of fabric that's quilted like the other blocks - it'll be the outline of a Dresden Plate with quilting in the corners of the block, and plenty of room for my name and the date. Up until I laid the quilt out on the bed this morning, I couldn't decide where to put that blank block - it came to me: upper right corner.

Here's the patchwork sashing laid out with the blocks. Tonight I will sew them together; today I am thinking about it.



More blocks.