Lucy Boston Day

Happy birthday, Lucy Boston! She would be celebrating her 130th birthday today. Lucy Boston, famous to quilters for her "Patchwork of the Crosses" quilt, was also a British author, an artist, and a restorer of an old cottage and English garden. She was born on December 10, 1892 in Southport, England, and lived to the age of 97. 

This is Lucy Boston's original quilt called "Patchwork of the Crosses", made in the 1950's: 

Tama Quilters is a small group of quilt friends that met in each other's homes in Tokyo, Japan, in the 2000's. We continue to do biannual "summer homework" where we make 6 blocks--one to keep and five to swap with the other members. For the summer of 2019 it was decided we would make Patchwork of the Crosses blocks! Here's my finished POTC quilt!!! ⤵️

The block is made by hand-stitching, using English Paper Piecing/EPP. We were each provided enough papers to make six blocks. I used some Minnesota themed fabrics for my blocks, switching the blocks around as I ran out of different motifs for fussy cutting. Here are all of my blocks, before they were mailed to Japan. My favs have the Minnesota pine trees in the corners! ⤵️

Quilt Info:

Makers: Tama Quilters

Pattern: Patchwork of the Crosses, from Lucy Boston

Size: 10" x 37"

Batting: Quilters Dream Poly

Thread: Invisifil--light grey, and Glide 60--black

Quilting: Matchstick--Freemotion Quilting ⤵️

I used light grey thread over the blocks and black thread over the indigo areas on the top and bottom borders.

Here are the individual blocks, from left to right on my quilt. This first one, with the cute strawberries in the corners, was made by Yoshie-san: ⤵️

Keiko-san made a cross in the center of her block: ⤵️

I used Quilt Minnesota fabrics: ⤵️

Setsuko-san also put a cross in the middle, and roses in the 4 corners: ⤵️

Akiko-san has a rose garden theme in her block: ⤵️

Mihoko-san has red long stemmed roses: ⤵️

To join my blocks, I simply hand stitched them together where the blocks meet, then hand appliquéd them to an indigo background. Here is my finished quilt, hanging over our kitchen door, next to my longarm studio! ⤵️

Another view ⤵️ with National Positive Thinking Day quilt beside it!

Here's a close-up of my chunky binding, made from Japanese fabric. I cut it 5" wide and used this video tutorial by Latifah Saafir. It finishes at 1". I love how it looks like a picture frame!!! ⤵️

And here's a peek at the backing I used, Japanese fabric for the hanging sleeve and the flat wooden dowel I'm using to hang it, along with 2 clear Command Hooks on the wall. ⤵️

Interesting Info: Lucy Boston's daughter-in-law compiled photos and histories of all of Lucy's 20+ hand-stitched quilts and documented them in the book, The Patchworks of Lucy Boston, ⤵️ first published in 1985 and still available online.

It is said that Lucy Boston restored an English cottage and garden, then proceeded to write stories about the people and children that may have lived there in history. Pictured below are the six books in the Green Knowe Chronicles, written by Lucy Boston after the age of 60, from 1954 to 1976, and illustrated by her son, Peter. BTW, a "knowe" is British English for a knoll, or small rounded hill. 

I listened to all six audio books and they are compelling, realistic and magical, all at once! I would highly recommend them to adults and children, alike! (Although the 5th book contains some dark scenes--use discretion.) Each of the audiobooks are available free via the Hoopla library app and take 3-4 hours.

If you are visiting England, you can tour Lucy Boston's Green Knowe Manor, and see her quilts and visit her gardens, as well!!! The tour is run by Lucy's daughter-in-law, Diana, who also wrote the book on Lucy's quilts.

And if you can't visit England at this time, read the two part interview with Diana Boston and take a virtual tour, with all kinds of interesting info about Lucy Boston and her Green Knowe Manor!!! Part 1, Part 2

This is my 8th and final Tama Quilters swap/bee quilt for 2022!!! I'm so glad to have had the motivation to finish them all this year using a national day deadline for each one! Here are the 8 national days I went by!!! ⤵️

And here are each of the associated finished quilt tops!!! ⤵️

I'm very thankful for these quilt friends and the work they put into these blocks! Thank you, Tama Quilters!!! They all hang in my longarm studio and remind me of you.

And thank you, blog friends, for following along with me on this National Days quilt journey in 2022!!!

Grace and peace!!! ~Nancy

Check out all the quilt inspiration at: Patchwork & Quilts, Oh Scrap, Handmade Monday, Sew & Tell, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, Monday This & That, Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Free Motion Mavericks, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF, Whoop Whoop.