The Last of My Kind

Do you ever stop to wonder what happens to the stuff we leave behind or give away? Where does it go and what kind of life does it live after us? My latest quilt is a collaboration with a co-conspirator I will never meet. I purchased these hand pieced (!) scrap log cabins for $1 a block from an antique quilt vendor at a local quilt show a couple years back. As I pawed through the pile, I was in awe of the fabrics – obvious scraps – that the maker collected and pieced together. By hand! There were audible gasps at each block, I couldn’t help myself. The vendor told me she bought hundreds of the blocks years ago at an estate sale and that they weren’t popular with her customers, thus the ludicrously low price for vintage blocks. Well my filter must have been clogged that day because my response was “well those people must be total squares and I’ll take 42 blocks, please.”

The blocks then sat in my cupboard and emerged when I needed them most, at a time when I found myself with a lot of unexpected couch and bed time. Because all of the blocks are pieced by hand, out of respect, I completed my collaborator’s project by hand too. I grabbed the stack and sewed them together with needle and thread and no arrangement/constant rearrangement on the design wall. Creating in this way allowed me to really slow down the process and truly appreciate just what the quilter before me made. The mix of fabrics is so eclectic and everything lived a full life BEFORE becoming blocks.

Now let me introduce you to “Mabel”, the imaginary woman I conjured up who made the blocks in this quilt. Mabel was obviously very thrifty because the blocks include the tiniest of scraps in every material, including worn out elastic. There are novelty prints, curtains, pajamas, dresses, sheets and work shirts. Mabel was fearless in her craft and mixed prints with wild, artistic abandon. I have to wonder what else Mabel made with her precision and creative vision. There are some people who may say that Mabel was “just doing what she could with what she had available”. And I’m going to loudly come to Mabel’s defense here and exclaim no, dammit, Mabel was an artist and she knew exactly what she wanted to express through her quilt blocks. She may have never taken a color theory class but she understood color in an intuitive way that few do. She knew her blocks would only become the masterpieces they are with a whole lot of free expression. Spending so much time with Mabel’s log cabins also made me realize just how much fun she had while sewing these up. I believe Mabel had tunes on her radio and relished her time piecing these together. Oh how I wish I could meet Mabel and talk to her. I know we’d have a grand old time together.

I added my own imprint to the blanket through improvised hand quilting. To give the quilt extra security (and hopefully, more longevity) with the older fabrics and hand sewn blocks, I used a dense diagonal stitch design across each square. Because I do not have a suitable frame for this endeavor and work on my lap, the design could not be too fussy. I debated marking lines on the quilt to help guide my stitches, but then every time I actually thought about how much effort that would take, my stomach did a little recoil. So I asked the universe WWMD? (What would Mabel do?) Mabel would stop stewing and just stitch! I enjoyed quilting these blocks in bed, on the couch, on the camper couch and in the camper bed. I quilted over coffee, during my lunch hour and in the evenings to unwind. I rarely know how long something takes me to complete, except with this project, one block took me exactly an hour to complete – one per lunch hour, three per radio program, etc. Hand quilting, once again, allowed me to ogle over just how complex these blocks are. Mabel, you deserve a giant blue ribbon. The last bits of pizazz I added to the piece are the vintage florals for the back and the leftover mismatched binding.

The Mabel/Quiltunes collab is named after the Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit song “The Last of My Kind”. While spending countless hours aiming to do Mabel’s handwork justice, I wondered if she too felt a bit like a misfit. Did Mabel also want to slow down time and savor what she had? Did people wonder why she saved every last bit of every fabric and spent her free time with a tiny needle and thread making random blocks? In these ultra fast-paced and distracting times, I feel like an antiquarian. No thanks, I don’t want another app. I deeply appreciate human beings, not an algorithm, picking out the music I tune into. Speaking of humans, huge kudos to the grocery stores and post offices that haven’t fully automated and still employ helpful people. Ugh to the AI pop ups on every dang website trying to “help”. Nope, I haven’t heard that podcast and yes, I seriously do not know that mega pop star’s music. Could the kids (and immature adults) please tone down their subwoofers and drive a bit slower? I like my coffee for here, in a real cup. I am legitimately clueless about the majority of trends and simply can’t keep up with it all. I want to know my neighbors’ names and be part of a community. I want to minimize my impact and I have a severe allergy to drama, both manufactured or real. Almost daily I feel like I’m becoming a dinosaur in our modern times. In case you’re curious, that’d be a Stegosaurus which is my favorite and again renders me an outlier according to my nephew, an “unusual choice”.

Jason Isbell became famous – and infamous – with the group Drive By Truckers. The Drive By Truckers are incredibly talented and put out some real rocking stuff. Jason left the band in 2007 (thanks, internet!) and began his well-regarded solo career. Besides being a masterful guitar player, Jason is a phenomenal songwriter; every lyric is deep, honest and very raw. There is a whole lot of emotion in his songs and the man has lived through a lot. His songs touch upon addiction, poverty, racism, love, family and everything else you can think of. The albums I am most fond of are 2017’s The Nashville Sound and 2018’s Live from the Ryman although everything he’s made is high quality. Oh, and for the PBS aficionados among us, the band has a fantastic 2023 Austin City Limits set.

I wish I could meet Mabel in real life and hear the stories behind all of the fabrics in the blocks. I hope wherever Mabel is, and whoever she is (Estelle, perhaps?), she approves of what I’ve completed with her work. I feel honored to have 42 blocks of hers that will live a very good life in our home. Too bad there isn’t some sort of Ancestry.com for quilt blocks so I could track down the relatives and the maker. May all of our belongings that are well loved and no longer ours go on to provide another with as much comfort and joy as these quilts block do for me. This quilt was a collaboration for the ages. Thank you, dear Mabel. I will always cherish what you made and allowed me to complete.