the pillar of madison township

It is finished.  I have been working (in small spurts, intermittently) on this quilt since 2010.

It started out as these ideas in my notebook pages from the summer 2010.

The feed sack materials came from Mr. Getz.

That fall I crushed the walnuts from the backyard and let them soak into the field panels.  I pieced it together after they had been cleaned from that exerience.

The batting was comprised of scrap odds and end that I stitched together.  

The backing came from Helen Marker's sale.  

The pieces sat folded together until August of this year when I began stitching.

Pavement for the road.

Furrows for the fields.

Blue for the sky.

It has been my prime directive, following the completion of the quilts for two super sweet little ladies, to get this stitched.  The field and sky has been my every free moment for the past three weeks.

My thumb has a really good callous now.

Initially, I had invisioned a beam of light in the sky to incorporate a few rust stains.  After stitching it in I didn't like how it turned out and ended up removing the stitches.

 I decided a good darning would be even better and covered the stains.

The binding I pulled from my stash of finds.  They were once square pieces of a quilt.  Someone had taken it apart and saved it for a project that was never complete.  

They now have life.

The Pillar of Madison Township.

This piece is meant to be a third in my surface series.  Each one has had a great deal of personal meaning behind their creation and this is no exception.  

Each one of the pieces have been created before I left.  

In France, I made the Paris Stones as a way of regrouping from a deep bout of home-sickness.  

In Georgia, I created the Savannah Sidewalks to commemorate the city that had been my home for the those four years and where I met some wonderful people and where I had to leave.  

In Indiana, life is spent on roads.  Unlike the two cities where I had captured in sidewalks, Indiana takes a different perspective.  Pierce Road in Madison Township was my inspiration it is one of the roads that connects Wakarusa to the world.  Traveling on this two-lane road is always something.  It can be the facilitator to a great adventure - visiting friends, watching brothers graduate or be baptized, meeting new babies.  It can also be a sign of coming home, the last stretch.  In countless late nights my parents will stand in road in front of our house and wait to see the headlights three, four miles down this road that signal their children are close. 

The completion of this quilt is quite metaphorical.  Through the years it has taken me to work it I think I always knew that the completion meant that it is time.  That may be why I took my time in its creation.  I know now.  It's time for a new place, another adventure and path to be tread.