I made this quilt for a friend of mine who’s been going through cancer treatment this past year, hoping that the quilt would offer her some extra tenderness and care.
I chose to feature the Kickapoo River because it’s a river she and and I joyously canoed some summer afternoon years and years ago while drinking champagne, telling stories, and laughing.
This is the third quilt in this style that I’ve finished and with each one, I’ve learned some new tricks. With this one, I again used a reverse applique technique where I cut out the river channel as I turned the raw edges under and sewed them down. I’ve found that with this approach, the accuracy of the meander river channel stays more true than if I were to just cut out the channel and applique it on top of the background fabric. Likewise, I like the depth that this method creates as it adds to the feel of the river channel being lower in elevation than the surrounding uplands.
This quilt is entirely hand sewn including the extensive quilting showing the towns of Viola and La Farge, the river channel, and the complex topography of the driftless region. After washing it, the gauze fabric became even soften with the wonderful crinkly texture created by all the quilting–just what I’d hoped!
