Rose of Sharon

I have wanted to make a quilt with the Rose of Sharon applique pattern for many years. Hand applique has always been the reason I have not accomplished that aspiration. The time seems right. Using a design program I have drafted a pattern based on a quilt made by an Arkansas pioneer woman (Sarah Lucinda Coxsey Seitz) in the late 1800’s whose birthday happens to be the same as mine. It seemed a sign. She made her quilt sometime within a six year period from her marriage, giving birth to five children and her untimely death. I am motivated to get this done!

To test the pattern I have made this small wall hanging. I cheated just a bit and did machine applique so I could get the process down in preparation for organizing a kit to be taken on our summer travel in 2016. It might still need to be tweaked to look more like her version. The background of the sample is one of my hand dyed vintage linens in a golden brown paired with batik and textural fabrics to make a non-traditional coloring of this pattern. The setting is also non-traditional with a 20 inch block set into a rectangular shape resulting from wide side borders and narrower but elongated top and bottom borders. I believe this shape is more interesting than simply centering a single block with multiple borders.

My aspiration for the pattern is to use non-traditional coloring but to hand applique the bed size quilt. Sarah made hers with only a top and bottom plain border with nine twenty inch squares. I plan to have a top and bottom border that resembles a swag with the Rose of Sharon motif.

I am counting on 2016 travel time to be perfect for taking on a totally hand applique project.