County Line Quilts: Year of the Ram

Planning the Quilt and Making the Patterns

The Result of the Planning (Unquilted)

A better name for this quilt may be "Patricia, what were you thinking?" I can remember my first grade teacher Mrs. Sarver walking around the classroom and holding up my classmates' artwork. When she got to me, she held it up and said, "Patricia, what were you thinking?" Which caused a lot of derision amongst my classmates and caused me to hang my head in shame. Those were the days when teachers could be brutally honest, before they had to worry about your self-esteem and bolster your little egos. Well, I was thinking, but somehow my artistic skills were never equal to the vision in my head, not then and not now. The inspiration for this quilt came from two sources. Firstly, when I was helping the quilt judges at the county fair, one of the special categories was the current Chinese Zodiac Year; this year is the Ram. I thought, "Hmm, interesting! I'd never thought of that concept. Just how do you do a "Ram" quilt?" Then fabric.com had a sale and this wildlife print was too good to pass up for my "Ram" quilt. According to the Internet, the Chinese "Ram" year could either be a sheep or a goat and this fabric has both bighorn sheep and mountain goats. Secondly, I watched a quilting video by MAN SEWING with Ron Appell. His quilt was a "strip scramble" and used an ocean wildlife print. He is a graphic artist and you are supposed to see water currents in the quilt along with the ocean animals. Again, I thought, "Hmm, interesting! I wonder if I can use this concept for my "Ram" quilt?" I bought the pattern, so I could legitimately use his idea. He used all rectangles, but trying to make my rams look like they are hanging out on cliffs and mountains, I used more vertical rectangles than he did and added some trapezoidal shapes. The only place I've actually seen bighorn sheep, besides a zoo, was on a river trip through the Grand Canyon. Therefore, I added a river at the bottom and a clear blue desert sky at the top. Finally, when Mother saw the quilt, she asked about the horizontal light patches near the top. But, there was thinking there, too. Everyday of my young life I looked at the brown mountain above my hometown Superior, Arizona and marveled at the light horizontal streak that ran through it. Later I learned to call it a "limestone outcropping". So, I added an outcropping to this quilt. Mother rolled her eyes so far and so vigorously up when she heard my explanation, I was afraid her eyes would be permanently stuck at the top of her head. Anyway, any quilt that requires this much explanation must be as successful as my art work in school.

I made this quilt neonatal size to be donated the quilt guild's neonatal collection for Lucille Packard Children's Hospital. Hopefully it'll get used before we roll into the next Chinese Year, Year of the Monkey. Hmm, that starts me thinking! Ha, ha!

Superior Mountains from near our yard. The white streak from the house roof going to the right is one of the limestone outcroppings.

Me in First Grade--Always Thinking

Size: 41" x 45" Neonatal size
Quilting: Tried to quilt to look like sky, rocks, and water. Again always thinking, but not so successful. Quilted around goats, sheep, cacti on the print. Free form quilting. Used several colors of polyester thread (Omni from Superior Threads-"Light Turquoise" for sky, "Milk Chocolate" and "Light Tan" for rocks and dry creek bed, "Ocean Blue" for the river).4 bobbins. Used bobbins left from recent projects. Quilting by Patty.

Backing: Wildlife print from fabric.com sale--same print used on the front.

Batting: 100% polyester, left from Tomiko's Incipient Scientist quilt. I had to piece it to make it the correct size.

Binding: Dark red cotton print left from the dark red blocks in the quilt.
Pattern: Inspired by "Simple Strip Scramble" by Ron Appell from "Man Sewing" internet videos.

Piecing by Patty.

Pinned into frame October 2, 2015. Quilting on long arm quilter October 2, 2015. (Patty).

Binding by Patty.

QC by Spencer.