Reveal - Ringo Lake Renovation
This is the story of a quilt whose story I began almost two years ago, but the story isn't over yet. This is a sort of 'You get to pick the ending on this one.... this fall, in Houston (or online!). This is the story of the quilt I've donated to the Ovarian Cancer Quilt Project, the proceeds of which help to fund the Blanton-Davis Ovarian Cancer Research Program at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
In 2017, the auction helped to raise over $52,000 to help fund the fight for a cure for Ovatian Cancer, and I (along with my partner in this project, Cheryl Szynkowski) have been pleased to participate again this year. The online auction will be held from October 23rd to Nov 6 this year, and I hope that we exceed the 2017 numbers - the mission hasn't been accomplished yet.
When you look at the quilt, you may find yourself thinking that it looks a little familiar. It should - it's based on Bonnie Hunter's 2017 mystery quilt, On Ringo Lake. I jumped into that project without having done enough research to understand the amount of work a Bonnie quilt takes to make. It's scrappy - and her instructions are some of the most detailed and precise I've ever encountered. The blocks that I did make are very accurate, and I was proud to have made the ones I did...I just realized pretty early on that this wasn't a project I was going to finish. I've never made so many flying geese - and that's before I even started on steps 3 or 4.
There's a lot of orange and brown interwoven amongst the turquoise - may be I was seduced by this project because the colors reminded me of the carpet in this house when we first bought it! I continued on making blocks, before finally realizing that at that point, I didn't have the time to devote to such an intricate project.
Several months later, with a calendar in front of me, I realized that if I was going to have something for the MD Anderson auction, and work this into Cheryl's schedule so she would have enough time to work on it on her end, this quilt was the easiest of the WIPs I had to pick from. Trust me, there were - and still are- plenty.
After an honest heart to heart with Cheryl about what was and was not feasible, and a commitment on my end to have the quilt to her by x date...I got busy. I started with laying out what I had for blocks that were done, and that gave me an idea that I hadn't seen done before with this pattern...color blocking. That's when the word renovation entered the title.
I started with the larger of the block set, and put that on point (after this, I did have to make 1 more to finish the set, but I really liked how that was going to play together...the blue solid on the right of the quilt, and the brown in the middle.
Working with this set of photos, I was pretty sure that my math skills for on point settings needed some brushing up, as sure as I was that the
The second set of the blocks is the 9 patches, that wound up going on the left. I wish I could say that my design technique was going to be disciplined, but we all know better. This was more like "I have this in my head, now how do I get it on paper" technique, one which I am very familiar with.
Finally, with a sense of relief I had the top pieced together, and my thoughts coherent enough to send the top to Cheryl for her magic. This wasn't the smoothest of collaborations, but we know enough to finish each other's sentences.
The photo below on the bed shows the final results of my working the math out for the nth time, and laying it out to get a sense of what it was going to look like. I sent it off, confident that her contemporary quilting style would bring it to life. It did.
Cheryl took the pieces and pulled it together in what is a wonderful quilt...
The colors in the blocking make this one a difficult one to photograph, but the blue quilting detail truly speaks to me, as it tells the story about the Lake. I love that detail, and truly, that's when I fell in love with the quilt.
I hope the new owners do as well.