Sweater, Sock, Shawl . . . or Quilt?

Design, in knitting and many other arts and crafts, has four requirements: inspiration or an idea, knowledge of the craft sufficient to make intelligent decisions, enough skill to execute the project, and confidence that you can do it. This week I'm going to tell you about a project I've had in the back of my mind for a long time.

A few years ago, I was poor. I lived in what had been WWII housing, an old shingled duplex that was intended back in the 1940s as temporary housing during wartime. Well, here it was over 50 years later being rented for $300 a month - a good deal for me at the time, and a super deal for my landlord, who had paid $6,000 for the whole property in the 1950s. The gas heater in the living room warmed the place right up, but it leaked a bit, and I was always afraid it would explode. The stove had three burners and was crowded into a corner of the kitchen next to two thin walls with no fireproofing. The window frames were rotting - pieces of frame fell out when I tried to wash the glass.

Despite its deficiencies, this dwelling had one great benefit: a landscape. I could walk out my back door and see trees and the Olympic Mountains. I could walk out the front door and see Puget Sound. I often sat in the living room and gazed through the open mini-blinds at the branches of the Deodora cedar in the front yard, which drooped gracefully downward from right to left, framing, in the spring, a brilliant pink azalea on the outside and a large jade plant on the inside of the window.

I spent a little time sketching the tree through the window and was inspired to conceive of a quilted jacket with this scene on it. I would have the jade plant and azalea on the back and tree branches starting in the center back and extending to the sides of the jacket, so there would be an effect of the branches wrapping around my body - I could take my home with me wherever I went. I would make the tree branches, azalea, and sky out of patchwork and the jade plant from applique. I would quilt in horizontal lines across the jacket, about 1/2 inch apart, to simulate the lines of the mini-blinds. I think I did pretty well with the inspiration part, but when it came to the knowledge and skill parts, I fell short. For one thing, I had never done a patchwork. How hard could it be? I thought (not lacking in confidence yet).

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