Drawing Mr and Mrs Noah

 Hi! Cold and rainy week, snow/ blizzard/ cyclone bomb coming. A gale warning popped up on my screen as I typed this, 50+mph winds. Good to have my sewing plans, my hot tea HERE, my Baby Mo. I spent an absurd amount of time this week, designing Noah and wife for the Noah's Ark quilt.

First, last week, I removed the too dark night sky border and redid the moon and stars. 

New version

Whew, much better, plus a chance to fix this wonky seam, below. The fabric was too flimsy and odd to match the plaid lines but bowing was bothering me.

new, machine appliqued stars this time:

Next the final figures of Noah and Mrs N. I knew I wanted to base the drawings on two of my primitive cooky cutters. 

The man is so weird, does he have breasts? No I think that is a cut out for his arms and scrawny chest, hahaha. And the woman's shape, are those her elbows? 

Other inspirations gathered over the past two two years: versions of Harriet Power's [late 1800s to early 20th century folk quilter] Bible Quilt, and copies there of.  I can't wait to get these stamps, will order online. [Please don't ask me what the Bible scenes are, HP must have had a very deep knowledge of the inspiration text.]

A Jan Patek version made by blog friends Julianne and Lori/ Humble Quilts.

A Smithsonian repro sourced by Julie Silber, av in her shop online.

I also considered the Lady from Whatnots, she's tiny but so cute and animated.

I started by tracing the cooky cutters.

too ''paper doll". 

Versions emerged, came to a final shape but too large, so reduced the size on my printer copier.

Old fashioned templates, pasted on cardboard, draw around for easy needle turn. No stupid papers:

I had planned for Mrs Noah to be a bright double pink like Lady above, but too distracting. Then indigo, grey, and black sprigs were too dark, heavy. I finally decided the pale pink stripe dot was subtle enough to work. Noah got tan plaid; the considered  gray plaid was also too dark.

So here they are.

I saved the final touches for this weekend snow days. Embroidery, ugh. Sprigs of leaves for the doves, eyes for the whales. Lucky for me only a few of the creatures have  eyes. The paper doll tryouts would make such a cute child's quilt maybe, so they are tucked into the original pattern

One day I auditioned backings using stash fabrics. This was a long ago mistake I found on the blue discards shelf.

Light or dark? Hard to see in photos but the blue side/ right side looks especially ''hospital gown''; the reverse is okay. I have a stripe set aside for the binding.

I'll show everything when finished, before it goes off to Lori C--hoping the light will be better soon, it's been a lights on all day kind of week.

Mo of course supervises. For some reason he was fascinated by the metal cooky cutters???

WHAT. Is. THIS?, mommy?

He and I both wonder why I went with a boring blue colorway? This old screenshot was my years ago, original inspiration, and I also considered a red and white full sized Ark quilt for years for years. Why drab off-color blues, yawn.

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The amaryllis are showing green shoots, so thrilled. Only Big Red remains sad and crinkled brown. Still hoping though.

Have a good weekend.

love

lizzy

gone to the beach... 

PS I'm proud that I have resumed my walks post flu and snowstorms, despite the dismal weather, but the beach is still drifted with snow. Not safely accessible yet. And the hulking, scary big trucks have arrives, two weeks early. They groom the beach, you may recall. This was Monday, I think.

Smithsonian article about the H Powers quilt, including direct information explaining each block's meaning. Written down by the original purchaser who bought the quilt for $5.oo. Sadly as Ms Powers didn't want to have to part with her special work of art. HERE

There ae also YouTube vids you can search and watch. Here's one---HERE

The Jan Patek Bible Quilt; the Noah's Ark Quilt, and another Ark quilt are all available on JP's website.