Not *this* kind of dumpling!
Yes, these are dumplings, but it’s not the kind I meant. However, if you want the recipe, I describe it here (but the NYTimes Cooking website is the original source). It’s soooo good for an end-of-summer recipe.
This is the Dumpling I was thinking of — a sweet little zippy bag. It’s a design by Michelle Patterns, and she has a great tutorial and a free pattern at her website. I’ve made many, and use them for little things in my purse, I use them for travel (it carries my tiny portable phone charger/battery/thing). They hold lip gloss, lipstick, treats — all kinds of stuff.
This is why I made them: my granddaughter’s wedding had champagne and beige and cream and white for her wedding, and my daughter — the designer — had used chiffon and satin ribbons everywhere. So I grabbed some of the ribbons when we were cleaning up and brought them home.
I pulled all the tones of the wedding I could find in my stash, cut 2 1/2″ squares and sewed them together in rows. Then I backed them with batting and fabric, did a random wavy pattern for quilting, and cut out the dumpling bag shape. It goes together really quickly. I sewed a clump of ribbons onto the zipper pull and sent them off!
Glad they like them! A little momento of a big day.
And what else have I been doing? Mending quilts. If you’d told me I’d be mending quilts decades after making them, I wouldn’t have believed you. The Christmas quilt (since passed down) was ripped, but luckily I had the fabric. Watch the little movie here. But the other was an earlier quilt of mine.
This is how it — and we — looked in Road to California in 1998. I’d seen a Wheel of Mystery Quilt in a National Quilt Show in a city close to ours (the only time I can remember one coming that close). I didn’t have a template and can hardly remember if 25 years ago we were using rotary cutters, but I’d sort of figured out the pattern and made a template from a Crisco shortening container lid, and used that to draw all those circle-y shapes.
I purchased just about every color way in the pansies fabric, and used solids to coordinate. It took me about 3 years to make this, and yes, it was hand-quilted, on a small hoop stand that was in the corner of our dining room.
Last night, Dave held it up for me in our back yard, another sun-going-down photo.
The back. This is Quilt #25, in my Quilt Index. Unbelievably, that’s 254 quilts ago.
The label on this well-loved quilt reads:
I SEND thee pansies while the year is young,
Yellow as sunshine, purple as the night;
Flowers of remembrance, ever fondly sung
By all the chiefest of the Sons of Light;
And if in recollection lives regret
For wasted days and dreams that were not true,
I tell thee that the “pansy freaked with jet”
Is still the heart’s-ease that the poets knew.
Take all the sweetness of a gift unsought,
And for the pansies send me back a thought.
Poet: Sarah Dowdney
I used the phrase “heart’s-ease” as a title on another quilt, but this one is just all Pansies. And yes, that label is all reverse appliqué –I slid the hand-written poem underneath a pansy rectangle, and edged it with a border of pansies. I cut out and appliquéd more pansies around the edges.
Why was I mending it? The binding had worn right along the edges (we used it on our bed for many years). Because I had made a double-width binding, and because I didn’t have any more of that fabric, I pulled off the binding, pressed it, and cut it down the middle, tossing the worn side, and saving the “underneath” side:
I did a double-fold binding, sewed it on, then trimmed away excess before I folded it back over the raw edge and hand-sewed it down.
That’s what talking on the phone is for: put in earbuds/put on headphones and talk and sew. It’s already been claimed by one of the children, and I’ll deliver it to him in the next couple of weeks.
In last week’s poem, I mentioned “ricks” and found out they were haystacks. Well, this past week I was in Chicago (my husband was at a scientific meeting) and I spent two of those days at the Art Institute of Chicago, even becoming a member. And here they were, these piles of hay as described by Dylan Thomas: “hay / Fields high as the house” and “the nightjars / Flying with the ricks” as painted by Claude Monet. There were multiple images of these haystacks, and lots of beautiful Monets.
(Above is a video, if technology is working for me. )
I hope that wasn’t too fast, but you get the picture. Multiple pictures. And a patchwork Rail Fence floor.
When I left to Chicago, I determined I was not going to seek out quilts, or fabric stores, but instead accept whatever Chicago was going to give to me. It gave me so much: time away, time for walking, time for seeing pattern, time for seeing art, time for resting. It also gave me a chance to see many interesting things, catch up with some friends, go to church with a different congregation, and stay in a grand old hotel where I didn’t have to clean and I didn’t have to cook one meal all week, and where they claim the brownie was invented.
Of course, I saw the grid — and quilts — in everything, everywhere–
Title: For the Pansies, Send Me Back a Thought
My quilting has evolved and changed, but I still love this quilt.
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First comment!!! I’m the only one up this late on a Saturday night! Loved it traveling vicariously with you to Chicago. Keep talking up the Midwest, we love it here!
The dumpling pouches look like a big hit and the size seems perfect to use to nest a few things into my purse. I’m more of a drawstring bag maker, though (aka I don’t have zippers on hand), but that’s cute enough that I may ponder getting some zippers to try it out! Sounds like a really lovely week away in Chicago. If you stayed where the brownie was invented, I sure hope you were able to enjoy eating one or two! And thanks for the idea on how to mend binding. My first quilt (much loved buy also much different than what I’ve evolved to make these days) is rather worn and some day I should be able to mend its binding a very similar way. I hope I remember it when the time comes!
It’s 2:41 a.m., I couldn’t sleep because of a nightmare about spherical quilts (?!), got up and turned on my phone- to find this post! Yay!
You always give me so much to digest. At first I thought this was going to be a brief post about dumplings (yummy!). Luckily you showed the dumplings bags before I went downstairs to find something to eat. They’re cute. And champagne is such a great color for weddings.
Then came your mended quilt. I don’t have words. The variety of pansy colors, the ingenuity of your pattern making and quilting and binding…
Finally, more Chicago. I didn’t comment on your Chicago posts, but thought your photography is amazing. My Dad was born in Chicago, so I’ve been there at least once a year, but you made me see it like it was new. And today’s photos of quilts that are hidden in a floor and a skyscraper are just fun.
One of my favorite art museums is Musee D’Orsay. It’s for impressionist paintings. It’s in a converted old-fashioned railway station, made of arched glass. So the light is all natural (I think) and constantly changing. Each painting takes on different looks even as you’re examining it. It’s like they’ve come to life. Your Monet photos reminded me of the Museum. If you haven’t seen it, I hope you do.
If this isn’t too nosy, what kind of scientist is your husband?
Thanks for your post! And good night!
It looks like your posts are always enjoyed by your readers. Your pansy quilt is beautiful and has held up well. I think I have always used double binding but never realized the value until I had to repair the binding on one of my quilts. Chicago really has a lot to offer. I looked at the booking price for September at the hotel and was surprised to see that their rates were reasonable. I’m sure it depends on current events in the city. Those dumpling bags were perfect for a keepsake from the wedding, including the ties.
Loving your pansies quilt and binding redo! I’m going to try my hand at the fabric dumplings 🥰 thank you! Hugs! 🤗
So fun to see your 1998 photo of the beautiful early quilt and I see you made a quilt coat back in that era as I did. Of course I fell into making one this round also. I bet it means a lot to know the pansy quilt is wanted by your son, I think that is a hope of all us quilters…that of not wanting our quilts to end up in a garage sale or thrift store. I know I hope mine will go to someone that knows the love that went into their making.
It’s great that you had such a wonderful trip to Chicago! I bet you came home rested and renewed and those dumpling bags are such a great memento to a special day.
I have been in that room with the Monet paintings – it is breathtaking and mesmerizing. What you did with the wedding toned fabrics/ribbons is just wonderful!
I do love the quilt, but that DRESS you had in on in the 1999 picture! 😀
I used to live in Milwaukee, and when I was in high school, our art class took a field trip to the Art Institute of Chicago to see a huge Monet exhibit. It was the first time I had seen such large pieces in person and I had so much time to examine them — I was struck by how from a distance, you could recognize the subject, but close up, the dabs of color and brush work made little abstract compositions of their own. That is still something I look for in quilts! Are they as interesting close up as they are from far away?
Great post — so many different interesting topics!
Those Dumpling pouches are darling! They’re each so well-suited to the occasion. Aren’t you glad you know how to sew, so you can create such treasures? So much nicer than any purchased bridesmaid gift. Great job, Elizabeth! And that Winding Ways quilt… musta been a popular design for a while because I still have one, hand-pieced among my UFOs. It’s at the point where I was going to add borders, which I would not consider doing now, so to complete it as a quilt top, it needs more blocks. And blocks were pastels… sigh. I doubt it will ever be finished now. It’s nice that you could repair your pretty quilt, and keep that looking-back memory alive. I’m smiling at the dress you’re wearing in the picture. So pretty! And definitely looks like a patchwork dress. Did you make it?
Your dumpling bags were a great idea and so practical too. Love your Winding Ways quilt. It has held up well and I’ll bet it is so cozy now. Glad you were able to do the repair. Your Chicago trip looked fabulous. I had an aunt and uncle who lived there so we spent time there growing up. We’ve loved the city and always stay at the Palmer House.
The dumpling pouches look fabulous. What a great memento of that lovely wedding! It’s been a long time since I made a zipper pouch….it might be time to try this pattern. Isn’t the light on Monet’s haystacks so perfectly captured? I love that painting!
Elizabeth, you never cease to amaze me.
Bless you-
So wonderful to see an old quilt, and especially to see how you salvaged the binding. Great idea that I will put in my memory for when that time comes for one of my quilts! 🙂 And fun to read about your other happenings: your travels, and the wedding. Great little pouches!!
I love your pansies quilt and believe it or not I have some of those fabrics in my stash! It sounds like you had an absolutely fabulous time in Chicago.
I’m glad you found a way to repair your quilt and prolong it’s life. A sign it has been well used and loved. I’ve also enjoyed your Chicago travel photos. It’s nice to see it through fresh eyes as my experience was mostly just driving through on my way from Madison (first job) to Indiana (home). I grew up 100 miles from Chicago but it wasn’t a place we visited.
The colors used in the wedding were just beautiful! Those dumpling pouches are a nice remembrance. I enviously followed your Chicago trip. It looked fantastic!