I Think Her Name Must Have Been Patience
One day I was casually thumbing through a library book, Pioneer Quilts: Prairie Settlers’ Life in Fabric, by Lori Lee and Kay Triplett. The book included a photograph of an old quilt identified as “Cake Stand” and made circa 1890 by an unnamed quilter.
It stopped me in my tracks. I studied it for some time, impressed by the untold hours of work it must have taken – all hand-pieced! – and also by her bold and unapologetic color choices – if you run out of reds and whites, just keep going with blues, grays, and browns. The energetic and non-traditional setting for the blocks (which I would identify as baskets) also intrigued me.
Over the course of several days, I kept going back to this quilt even though I had other projects and obligations more pressing. Before long, I was pulling from my stash and re-drafting the poorly written pattern, knee-deep in my effort to re-create this quilt and honor its maker. This has been a labor of love.
Pieced by Kathy Cracroft Wilhelmsen
(Draper, Utah – 2023)
Quilted by Eagle Mountain Quilting
