Monday, December 5, 2022

Quilts by the Water: Chain Link, Old Fisherman's Wharf, Monterey, California

 I originally named this quilt Chain Letter. I had a set of beautiful hand dyed fabric from Cherrywood in sea glass colors. 

I had come up with this block for a virtual quilting bee, I think for Amy of Diary of a  Quilter.


The block I designed is called Chiral Music (named by our son, Aaron), a rather quirky name. I had texted him a picture of the block and said I felt it needed a better name than "In and Out" or "Hello-Goodbye," and he immediately texted back "chiral." I wondered if he had meant "choral" because I had never heard of the term "chiral." He said that chiral refers to a molecule that appears to be a mirror image but actually is not exactly superimposable (he knows a lot of scientific information). I liked the name a lot, and added "music" as kind of a play on words since I had originally thought he meant "choral."

Then I played with it and turned the elements around, and this became Block 1.

I spent a weekend with my friend, Elizabeth Eastmond, and we played with different layouts.

We dropped some elements of the block, and this became Block 2.

This became the final quilt.


I submitted it to Modern Patchwork and it was accepted. The editors changed the name to Chain Link.



It was also in a later issue as the example used for an article on modern quilting.

When I decided to make a second calendar, Quilts by the Water, it was photographed by the wharf in Monterey, California.





Title: Chain Link
Pattern by: Me.
Date Completed: 2014
Size: 40" x 40"
Quilted by: Dea Oskerson

3 comments:

05 08
Yvonne from Quilting Jetgirl said... #

Wow, it's amazing how different the block design looks with choice of fabric placement. Beautiful quilt and it looks like the perfect photo to get to enjoy in your calendar for this month. :)

Anne / Springleaf Studios said... #

Love hearing the back story on this one. It's a wonderful use of negative space and color. As usual you find the best places for quilt photos. We were both in that issue of the magazine. Those are my pillows on the cover.

OPQuilt said... #

Great story of the naming process (and I like your names much better than what the magazine called it...just saying). It's beautiful photographed there by the water--such a beauty of a quilt! (and yes, I remember your making that at my house)