Ladies of the Canon • Quilt Finish

I was in a quandary about what to name this quilt, having tried out multiple phrases. It was a quilt made up of blocks from my friends in The Gridster Bee, the penultimate year I ran the group.

Susan, one of my friends in the group, wrote to suggest I consider “Ladies of the canon? As in music – composition in which each successively entering voice presents the initial theme usually transformed in a strictly consistent way. (And there’s also that cool reference to Ladies of the Canyon by Joni Mitchell.).”

I’d played many a canon in my teenager years as I studied music (piano) and who of us can forget the Pachelbel Canon in D? As to the quilt, I’d asked each of the bee members to make a lady, and some made “representative” women, and some made self-portraits. I didn’t really specify which they were to do; it was fun to see what arrived in the mail. I dithered for a long time about whether or not I should create a pieced back (I didn’t), and whether or not I should quilt it myself (I didn’t). If I had waited for myself to do those last two things, the quilt would still be in pieces in my sewing room. I did have a few extra blocks, and I have plans for them, never fear. I so appreciate the women I sewed with over several years time. The Bee was fairly stable for a while, but always a few leaving and a few coming in.

When I finally did leave The Gridsters, Patti took it over and it is still going strong, with a new group of women. It’s fun to see their blocks in my IG feed, and I’m happy for the time when I gathered my own Ladies of the Canon. Good memories, represented in this fun quilt.

I made my sample lady in February of 2021, using blue scraps from my first pieced quilt for her hat.

We photographed the quilt at a local elementary school. My husband catalogues all the murals and art in our town on his blog, Murals and Art, so I have an easy supply of cool backdrops.

Thanks, Dave, for always being willing to hold up a quilt. (BTW, those palm trees are not curved; it’s a function of the camera lenses.) This is quilt #280, in my Quilt Index.

Now, a piece of good news. My quilt, Aerial Beacon, was accepted into Road to California’s quilt exhibit in 2024. I didn’t think any of my quilts would be accepted, so yes, I’m pretty happy.

For a long time now, my husband and I knew of an actual aerial beacon in Southern Utah, but just could never find the time/energy to go there. This week, we did. I wrote about this, and the quilt, in an earlier post:

An arrow, about 50 feet long was poured from cement, and a tower and a small hut were erected on that slab. And we hiked up this hill to go and find one, in St. George, Utah:

You can still see the metal bars poking out of the center section, where the tower would go. This arrow is 56 feet in length.

Found out this is the remnant of Transcontinental Air Mail Route Beacon 37A (from here. More info is found here.)

We’re happy we found it! (I love I could connect with something created in 1925.)

The two white water tanks are to the left of this.

And that’s a good note on which to close this post. Happy November, everyone!

Other posts about this quilt:

This and That, February 2021
Book Reviews & Giveaway, March 2021
Pieced Quilter Ladies: Twelve Ladies Dancing, December 2021
The Ladies Are Back: This & That February 2023
Bright Ladies (Well Read) • Quilt Top Finish, April 2023
And then, a tab (above) with links to the free patterns, and a closer look at the handiwork of The Gridsters: Pieced Quilter & Notions

More about the Mitchell song, which I’d never heard before Susan sent me down the rabbit hole:

The Music Aficionado writes that the song was about “Mitchell’s Laurel Canyon’s circle of friends….Trina Robbins moved to LA from NYC in the winter of 1967. She was girlfriend of Paul Williams, publisher of the Crawdaddy rock magazine. She always wore those popular Love Beads, otherwise known as wampum beads. She also loved to doodle in a sketchbook that was always on hand. Annie Burden, wife of photographer Gary Burden, was keeping house and family in Laurel Canyon. She was host to many artist gatherings in her house and described her life there as: “I simply made babies and brownies, encouraged by the fact that Joni Mitchell saw me as a sort of Martha Stewart of the ’60s.” Husband Gary Burden later designed the album cover for Blue. Estrella Berosini was raised in a circus to a Czech highwire performer. Joni Mitchell bought her a gypsy-like shawl that she wore a lot.”

Now you know.