Making the You've Got Mail quilt
/It began on December 1st with a tiny paper scroll and it ended in March with a beautiful quilt. This unexpected and wholly original project has a wonderful story that belongs only to this quilt and our family and is set to become an heirloom for generations to come. If you follow me on Instagram you will know the story, if you don’t here’s the lowdown.
My daughter and I share a very beautiful second hand advent calendar box from Liberty’s of London. For the last few years we have taken it in turns filling and opening it. Last December it was my turn to receive it and for a few weeks prior to the 1st, it sat on the shelf, looking smugly like it was loaded with secrets. It was….one very large one. Inside was a daily set of instructions for a mystery quilt, designed and imagined by my girl. To say I was astonished would be an understatement.
It began simply enough with some strips and blocks cut and constructed without fuss. There were instructions as to the colours to be used so I raided my stash (a jolly good thing to do) and started to build the quilt.
There weren’t any clues at all at this stage as to where this project was going. The blocks built up….
I wasn’t at all sure what was going on - this would certainly not be a colour palatte that I would normally work with and the empty space in the middle made me a little apprehensive that a lot of appliqué was coming….. the dark green and yellow made me think maybe stars and christmas trees.
Then the next few days revealed these envelope blocks.
At this stage I was thinking it might be about Christmas cards but still I wasn’t sure at all how it would come together. My daughter is not a quilter (rather she’s a budding dressmaker), despite growing up in a house piled high with fabric and quilts. However, she is a mathematician and a creative and I had faith all would be revealed. With the next set of blocks it was…
Daisies….daisies always make me think of Meg Ryan in the movie ‘You’ve Got Mail’. And so it was. A movie quilt, a favourite movie quilt. Have you seen this film? It is a much treasured rainy day dvd in this house and compulsory viewing over Christmas. It’s RomCom made in 1998 starring Tom Hanks as well as his perfect ‘girl next door’ co star. It is actually a remake of a 1940 film with James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan called ‘The Shop Around the Corner’, which in turn is based on a 1937 Hungarian play ‘Parfumerie’ by Miklos Laszlo. This original film is just charming and well worth watching if you are a fan of the more modern version. It is set in Budapest in leather goods shop and some of the original scenes remain almost unchanged, such as the episode in the cafe when Joe Fox discovers the true identity of his anonymous correspondent. Also the feel of the shop, despite being changed to books has the same checkerboard floor and beautiful wooden shelving and feels like they just changed the contents of the set. In a doing a little research, I discovered that Nora Ephron had long wanted to rework this film, but couldn’t really fathom how to do it until email came along and rendered it a whole new story. ‘You’ve Got Mail’ is an upgraded version for sure, and there is little doubt that Nora Ephron is a genius, but the original has that black and white romance about it and James Stewart brings some of that intense romantic innocence of the times to the screen.
Anyhow back to the quilt…. a colourful book block was just the perfect opportunity to play with some colour and trimmings and embroidery and really added to the theme of the quilt.
Thank heavens for fusible web too, which made doing the appliqué and especially the letters, easy and bold too. Once I had made all the blocks, I decided to embellish the envelop blocks with different things and this took a bit of time and thinking about. I raided my sewing room for any fabric that could help me and found quite a few bits and pieces relating to New York that really added a pop to the grey paper-like blocks.
Using quotes from the movie and themes that recurr was such a lot of fun to work on and really make this quilt a unique piece of work.
It is so great to have a challenge like this because you find all sorts of ways of expressing things and one thing is for sure, anyone looking at this quilt will see the story in every block.
As it came together I could see how unusual and special this project was turning out to be. I began to consider the backing and remembered a piece of bookish fabric that I had bought, but been unable to use before - it was simply perfect for the back, although I didn’t have enough for the whole backing. Adding some solid colour block panels on either side turned out to be really very effective.
For the free motion quilting I picked a fairly dense pattern, to help the longevity of the quilt and a modern one too. It took quite some time to complete but with every row I stitched, I could feel the texture and strength that all this layer of thread was adding to the quilt. For the binding, I used a piece of typewriter key fabric from my stash, which added a light touch and a literary touch to the outer boundaries of the quilt. Once it was finished I confess I was both relieved and elated. It is such a special and unusual quilt.
This quilt project has challenged me creatively, technically and taken me way out of my comfort zone. It is a beautiful quilt and it was quite difficult to really show it’s glory in the photographs, but it is way more than that. It is the story of a constancy in our family. During all those years of living as expat kids, our children had different (and exciting) homes in Moscow, Paris and Stockholm and little things like a lovely movie that wraps itself around you like a comfort blanket on a chilly day, take on a magical significance. The story of the play and films transcends time -whether it be paper letters or emails and it illustrates the sheer randomness of life. You never know who is going to pop into your life and make it richer. The film plays out to a very lovely Carole King Song and the words were perfect for the final act of the quilt, so in conclusion to this epic project, the label I made says it all…. when you have a baby, you have no idea who this little tiny person will turn out to be…..
