Tally Marks

Published on by bramangirlsquilt

Lock down in Michigan has been excessive and long. In my mind our imprisonment needed to be documented. I’ve seen in the movies how a prisoner would mark on the wall of their cell to keep track of how many days they had been locked up. I did the same in a quilt. One strip of fabric for every day since Michigan’s governor declared a State of Emergency. Residents were told to stay home, schools closed, only essential stores open (you know like the liquor or pot store but not the quilt store). Each State of Emergency was extended. It was not until the Michigan Supreme Court ruled she did not have the authority after April 30 to keep us under that State of Emergency. Too bad it took until October for the Supreme Court to hear and rule on the case.

My Tally Marks quilt started with 2 1/2 inch strips I had leftover from other projects. I certainly didn’t think this lockdown would last long. After all, this is the United States of America, the land of the free and the home of the brave. After making two blocks (that’s ten days in) I figured out I’d better make the strips a little skinnier and the blocks smaller.

Every block I made I’d hang on my idea wall. Pretty soon it was bigger than the wall.
Even though I knew I wasn’t close to having all the blocks made, I started putting the blocks together using my Singer featherweight.
I finished putting the blocks together, but I needed one more strip.

For the final strip I added a red, white, and blue strip diagonally across the entire quilt.

After all these months I finally got to make my quilt sandwich and start quilting.

Here are the mini blocks and a close up of the free motion quilting. I have to admit the mini blocks were more difficult to make than the larger ones. But I like how they give the quilt more variation.

Made completely from fabric leftover from other projects

I am so happy to have this quilt competed. It saddens me to think that of what this represents.