Judy S. Childhood: Parallel Parking

Childhood: Parallel Parking 

Most of my little quilts have something to do with my childhood and I didn’t want to repeat them. This quilt represents learning to parallel park which takes you from childhood into the big world where adults let you go out on your own sometimes.

Childhood in the country means that you are miles away from town. So, when you turn 15 you get a driving permit and at 16 you are free to drive to town or school on your own. Not riding the school bus is a big deal!

To teach me how to parallel park my brave sister, Susan took me to the small town of Vandalia, Missouri where I wouldn’t know anyone and they had a lot of parallel parking. I don’t know how long she had me drive around the block and try it again and again, but possibly 2 hours. I had to do it between real cars so that I could get the process down.

The treat was being able to go into the fabulous candy store afterwards. As you stepped into the store you were greeted by the old fashion glass counter where they would scoop out the candy you wanted and place it in the white paper bag. Oh my gosh! The coconut bonbons, bridge mix, and so many others to choose from. Childhood at it’s best!

Now I take quilting friends on retreats or outings and sometimes I have to parallel park in McKinney, Texas. I have discovered that I really do a great job parking on the left side of the street.

The funny thing about parallel parking is that when I did it for my drivers license test I was horrible! They only had poles set up to park between (for obvious reasons), but I couldn’t line up with the tires, gauge the distance I would be beside the other car, and visualize how to match up with the other car as I turned into the space. As I park downtown in Waco, Texas those things are always running through my mind so that I can just slide into the parallel space. Thank you, Susan!

Andrea's Childhood Quilt

 

My 1950's Shoe Collection

( or When My Shoe Obsession Began! )

11" x 14"

Hand-dyed and painted cotton, stenciled, rubber stamped, fused.

I'm not sure where to begin.  This is my "Plan B" design as I could not get the perspective that I wanted for my first design, which also featured shoes, or rather sneakers.  Anytime I can "work" shoes into one of my MM themes, I will!

I have been obsessed with shoes for years and I do believe it started in my childhood.  I can remember having 3 pairs of shoes every year probably until I got to Junior High School.  Ugly brown 'everyday' shoes; white *Converse sneakers and Sunday 'best' black patent leather Mary Janes for church.  I desperately wanted black and white saddle shoes, but that never happened.  I suspect my mother thought the white part would always need polishing as I spent a lot of time playing kickball with the neighborhood kids.

I started with a hand-dyed blue fabric background to represent the ocean, lakes and blue skies that I think of when I remember my childhood summers spent in Rockport MA and/or Camp Fire Girls camp.  The shoes were constructed and fused to the then quilted background.  I had to paint a piece of white fabric brown as I had none in my stash.  I also painted the pale blue and pink polka-dotted 'socks' fabric.  I could not find any 1/4" satin ribbon ( both Joann's Fabrics and Michael's ribbons were depleted ) for the shoelaces, so I painted two lengths of pale grey ribbon that I own, one white and one brown ( which I would not do again as it became too stiff to tie nice little bows ).  The majority of the rubber stamped letters that compose the shoe descriptions were left over from another project, which I thought added a bit of child-like whimsy.  The final addition was the stenciled "My 1950'5 Shoe Collection".  It wasn't until I put the finished quilt up on my wall to photograph that I realized, instead of "1950's" the stencil I cut was actually "1950'5".  Because I cut the stencils myself, I printed them many times 'auditioning' paint colors but never once saw the mistake!  I could ( and may still ) cut an 's' stencil, print on a separate piece of fabric to fuse on top of the 5, but at this point, think the mistake is kind of funny, I 'looked, but did not see'.

* Converse Rubber Company founded in 1908, Malden Massachusetts, where I grew up.