Quilters have always borrowed from the wild. We have Bear's Paw, Flying Geese, Fox and Geese and Ocean Waves, all named by women who looked out the window and saw a pattern. Stitchin' In The Parks turns the idea around. Each design is one of our Stitchin In Beauty national park badges, a finely drawn animal set among wildflowers under the park's name, and we could not help wondering which block every one of these animals would reach for first.
Blocks from the water
The Voyageurs loon, stitching between the waters, would piece a Storm at Sea and hum while she did it. The Biscayne manatee is an Ocean Waves girl through and through, unhurried, gentle and happy to take all afternoon. The Acadia resting seal would choose a Mariner's Compass, mostly so she could nap in the center of it. And the Stitchin' in Voyageurs design already looks like a finished quilt, with bands of sky, a pine shoreline, a canoe drifting across a blue lake and a family of loons paddling in the front.
Blocks from the forest
The Grand Teton moose is a Log Cabin quilter, steady and traditional, with a warm red center square. The Redwood elk and the Olympic elk, stitching in rainforest calm, would each make a Pine Tree block, although they would argue politely about whose trees are taller. The North Cascades bear stands tall on his hind legs and goes straight for Bear's Paw, of course. The deer of Capitol Reef, Guadalupe Mountains and Cuyahoga Valley would share a Tree of Life between them, each adding a few leaves of her own.
Blocks from the desert and the sky
The foxes of Canyonlands and White Sands, joined by the Acadia sitting fox, would all insist on Fox and Geese, which is awkward, because the Haleakalฤ goose has already claimed Flying Geese and would like everyone to keep their distance. The Hawaiสปi Volcanoes hawk prefers the old Hovering Hawks block, the Great Basin pronghorn takes a Prairie Queen, and the Joshua Tree jackrabbit picks a Churn Dash, because nobody at the cutting table moves faster.
For the quilter who packs a sketchbook with her hiking boots
She is the one who comes home from a park trip with a camera roll full of rock layers and wildflowers and a head full of color palettes. She knows her Bear's Paw from her Duck's Foot and has probably sewn both. Let her choose the park she has visited, or the one still waiting on her someday list, and see which animal is SO her. Just don't be surprised if the next quilt she starts has a moose hiding somewhere in the border.
Written by Judy. Thanks for reading.
