Happy Valentine’s Day!
Lucy Boston’s Patchworks are featured in the April 2014 issue of The Quilt Life!
It is a fascinating FIVE PAGE article by Diana Boston, Lucy Boston’s daughter-in-law, with beautiful photography by Julia Hedgecoe.
POLB 
POTC
Some of the photos in The Quilt Life are familiar from Diana’s book, The Patchworks of Lucy Boston, and from my book, Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Crosses.
Lucy Boston gives hope and inspiration to any artist or quilter—but especially those of us in our fifties and sixties.
The Life of Lucy Boston
Lucy Boston made her most famous quilt, The Patchwork of the Crosses when she was in her 60s. She was most prolific when she was in her 80s and continued to quilt in her 90s.
A LONG, CREATIVE OLD AGE, DESPITE LIMITATIONS
I cannot help but wonder how Lucy Boston’s artistic expression might have developed without three limitations that we do not face today.
1. Limited availability of fabric
Lucy Boston’s efforts to find suitable cotton fabric in England are described in letters in The Patchworks of Lucy Boston, (sold out, may be available on Amazon) one of my all-time favorite books.
Did you know that even though the war ended in 1945, sugar, meat and other food was still rationed in England until 1953-1954? Cotton fabric was in limited supply in the 1960s and 1970s too, before the revival of quilting in America. In our abundant world, it is hard to imagine.
Lucy Boston had a painter’s eye, and fabric was her palette but she lived at a time when only a very limited selection was available. Did it spur her creativity or limit her?
It’s a great time to be a quilter! In the whole history of the world there has never been more beautiful cotton fabric available than there is now. What would she have been able to create with it?
2. Failing eyesight
The last 10 or 15 years of Lucy Boston’s life were saddened by her failing eyesight. How tragic for an artist!
She tried using a magnifier and village children threaded needles for her after school. “Damn my eyes. I could keep my spirits up if I could see,” Lucy wrote in a letter to her niece when she was in her nineties (POLB, page 5).
It’s a great time to be a quilter! There have been breakthroughs in the treatment of glaucoma, cataracts, macular degeneration, diabetes, and other age-related causes of blindness in the past 50 years. If only there had been help for her! All of us have a better chance of keeping our sight even if we live to be 98, like Lucy Boston.
3. English Paper Piecing
Lucy Boston is famous and respected as an artist for her brilliant use of the designs in the fabric, not for her sewing method.
Joan in Australia was inspired by Lucy Boston to create stunning POTC blocks by hand (more in the albums on Inklingo IO) but she sewed with a running stitch, not English Paper Piecing, and was able to finish blocks in a fraction of the time.
English Paper Piecing is the slowest, most difficult, and least precise method in my book, but that was the method used in England at that time.
American quilting methods were not well-known in Britain, and Lucy Boston learned to sew by mending quilts that had been made in the early 1800s.
She cut her own templates from brochures and Basildon Bond writing paper. What if she had spent that time designing and sewing instead of basting and whip-stitching? A key to her artistic vision was matching identical motifs, but they were hidden from her when she was sewing!
I will always believe that she had even more exciting designs dancing in her head as she sat by the fire on long winter evenings. (That’s Maggie Smith sewing POTC in the movie From Time to Time based on one of Lucy Boston’s children’s books.)
We are grateful for the magnificent quilts, her delightful books, the impressive garden and the restored manor house, but I also think of “the lost quilts of Lucy Boston.” How many more masterpieces would we be admiring when we visit Hemingford Grey if she had had a better, faster method?
It’s a great time to be a quilter! Even if we choose EPP instead of faster, easier methods, we can print freezer paper templates and the best of everything is readily available. (One of many EPP Tutorials)
We have many options. We can sew by machine or with a running stitch by hand to create her designs in a fraction of the time, with or without printing the shapes on fabric with Inklingo.
Fern in Singapore has finished a spectacular POTC quilt using Inklingo to print the shapes on fabric.
“I attempted and abandoned Lucy Boston’s quilt some 12 years ago. Inklingo makes it easy-peasy to make a complex, exquisite and magnificent quilt. I am having so much fun with mine now.”
THE BEST IS YET TO COME!
As the article in The Quilt Life explains, music and gardening were also passions of Lucy Boston. She had a large collection of classical recordings. During the Second World War, she regularly hosted musical evenings for RAF pilots in her ancient manor house, as described in Diana’s book.
Given Lucy Boston’s passion for music, it seems appropriate that I have a favorite song running through my head while I write.
It’s not Lucy Boston’s classical music, but she makes me think the best is yet to come.
All quilters would choose to be as creative and artistic as Lucy Boston was in her sixties, seventies, eighties and nineties. Lucy Boston showed us how. She is our heroine.
We need to believe that the best IS yet to come for us.
LEARN MORE ABOUT LUCY BOSTON
- Diana Boston’s website—The Manor at Hemingford Grey
- My website—Main Lucy Boston Page (includes video)
The All About Inklingo blog is also searchable. There are dozens of articles about Lucy Boston, her quilts, English Paper Piecing, fussy cutting, etc. (right sidebar).
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I hope you are feeling loved on Valentine’s Day. Lucy Boston is certainly well-loved by quilters all over the world every day of the year.
“Whatever she touched, whether it was literature, horticulture, topiary, needlework or simple everyday life, bore the imprint of her unerring sense of beauty and quality.” (Lucy Boston Remembered: Reminiscences Collected by Diana Boston)
What a legacy!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Linda & Monkey
Lucy Boston book and quilt project is on my bucket list!!
Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Right! I love my POTC collection. Just need my hands to cooperate. And I’ve been eying several collections. I’d have to decide if I won…hmmm!
I would spend that entire gift certificate on Lucy Boston POTC! I am obsessed by it…and haven’t yet jumped into the fray! Wonderful blog post. Will save it and comb through it bit by bit, savoring it later in the day when I have more time!
Thank you for the inspiring words, Linda. Your positive attitude towards my time worry has heartened me.
So nice to see more of Lucy Boston! I have my POTC on the quilt frame and love Inklingo!
I would love to make Lucy Boston’s POTC with Inklingo. Hope I win the gift certificate! Will check out the article in Quilter’s Life.
Just received my cannon pixma printer so I can start my Inklingo journey.
Thank you for the heads up about the article in Quilters Life. I’m always interested in the history of quilting and what it said about the lives of the people who made them.
Hi Linda, I am new to Inklingo and quilting for that matter. I have almost finished an English paper pieced quilt which I inherited when a friend passed away recently, I can’t wait to finish and get started with Inklingo it will be so much easier and quicker.
I was born in the North of England in 1951 in a small village surrounded by cotton and woolen mills and have still got my ration book. I remember at my school presentation night (graduation) wearing a mini skirt and jacket that Mum and I had made from blanket off cuts from a mill where one of my Aunties worked. As Mini skirts were only just coming into fashion I caused quite a stir. Shortly after we moved to Australia where mini skirts hadn’t even hit the shops. Reading about Lucy Boston brought back a lot of memories of me watching my Gran sewing in front of the fire. That’s enough rambling, I started out to thank you for your inklingo program.
Now I am really looking forward to receiving my issue of The Quilt Life. Thanks for letting us know about this article that is coming in the April issue.
What a joy for today’s quilters that the “old” has become new again through Lucy Boston and Inklingo. Brava!
I am always astonished at the incredible designs you come up with, Linda…. and Monkey, too!
Please put my name in the draw and YES… you can buy a lot of Inklingo with $50!
Tks!
Rosa Robichaud
Saint John, NB
March 20th will be my 49th wedding anniversary, this would be a nice gift for me. Thank you for the give away.
Wow!!!! Would love to have a gift certificate!!!! Loved the story. I had not heard of Lucy Boston. I am 65 and am very influenced by another Brit, Winston Churchill. He became prime minister when he was 65 and saved the western world.
I have quite a few collections that I love, ut of course want more. If only I had more time to quilt. With five children time is scarce. Anyway I can’t save time and effort is a welcome help.
Thank you,
Cynthia k.
I love Inklingo. Can’t wait to start my Castle Wall but am looking for the perfect fabric. Linda and Monkey are safarily (LOL) amazing.
I am deep into the middle of Celtic Solstice using Inklingo, after only ONE DAY of figuring things out! I do believe that the Internet and computers are the greatest addition to quiltmaking since the rotary cutter! 🙂
What an inspiration! I’m 53 and just learning to quilt so this shows me I have many years left – God willing :-).
I am anxious to try inklingo. I have ordered the trial materials, but I am making myself finish some other projects before I dig in. It looks great.
POTC, Inklingo, Diana Krall, Tony Bennett, The Quilt Life with Ricky and Alex, Maggie Smith and a drawing–all in one blog post! The only thing missing from that Valentine is the chocolate (ok, Monkey — you know chocolate is bad for you, hand it over!) Perhaps my issue of TQL will be in today’s mail. Every time I see POTC, I’m more tempted than the last time I saw it.
I am a new follower and find this all so interesting.
I am so looking forward to stitching this. My last hand stitching has about run its course and I’m ready for something new.
Hi Linda,
A few months ago, I mentioned to my quilt instructor that I was thinking of trying hand piecing. Thought it might be a great little project to bring to work and play with during lunch time. That evening she sent me your site which got me excited and scared at the same time. I still haven’t downloaded the free patterns but I do check out the site quite often. Some day my fear is going to take a back seat and I’m just going to do it. It would be fun to be able to show and tell something new at my quilting guild. Thanks for the chance to win.
Thank you for the wonderful post about Lucy Boston and Quilt Life. “Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Crosses” is what lead me to Inklingo. What an easy process for the blocks and timing saving. Did I mention the great support with the products.
Thank you Linda!
I am so in love with the Lucy Boston quilt blocks and all about her.
Thanks for the history and pictures !
Have always loved POTC and so many of the other projects you create. Truly a talented woman!
I am currently putting my POTC blocks together. I’ve made it 6 x 7
and have enjoyed every minute of sewing them by hand. Inklingo has made it all possible
Woohoo! I’m always up for an Inklingo give-away! Wonderful blog today, Linda. Lucy Boston was amazing. I hope I’m half as together at 98!! LOL!
Thank you for the information on the April issue of Quilt Life with the article about POTC. I just ordered Inlingo to make mine (POTC) and am anxious to get started. There are just so many possibilities it amazes me. I shall have to look for that issue.
Sue H
I’m a huge inklingo fan. For fun I’m taking a hand piecing class at my LQS. We are tracing templates and stitching lines. It’s tedious, inaccurate and boring. I’m printing my next blocks with inklingo for show and tell. It’s a block of the month, fun to sit and stitch with others but this gal is tracing no more!
Thank you so much for this introduction to the Lucy Boston quilt–this quilt is at the top of my wish list!
Linda, your Inklingo has been amazing and I have truly found my passion for hand sewing thanks to you.
Linda, I have been a long time INKLINGO fan. I have started the Lucy Boston Quilt Patchwork of the Crosses. I would never have done so if I did not have Inklingo. Someday it will be finished, being pulled in many directions right now and find a little time here and there to sew. I gave the website out to two people yesterday at our huge (350+) plus member quilt group and they were intrigued. One of them wanted to do a Dresden Plate designed quilt. Let us see what happens! Cheers on the article.
I love the Castle Wall Quilt. Can’t wait to try it. I also have the POTC book as well The Patchwork of Lucy Boston. I am anxious to try the Crosses and the Castle Wall patterns.
Thank you — it’s a great Blog.
POTC is next on my Inklingo list. I am having so much fun! I get the biggest thrill watching the fabric pop out of the printer. Then just follow the lines. Love it!
I too have printed some of the free stuff and have yet to attempt anything. My local quilt shop is putting together fabric bundles for blocks and I have them too. They also have done a couple of demo’s – I feel more confident now. Will start soon! Love Love Love this quilt!
I am so glad that a fellow quilter told me about Inklingo a few months ago. Without it, I am afraid I’d have to give up quilting. With it, I can still make wonderful precise points and never have to worry about my pieces lining up correctly. Thank you, Linda and Monkey, for making it possible for me to still do something I love so much!
Linda – Always an inspiration and Inklingo is the perfect tool to achieve the impossible!
Don’t be afraid of Inklingo. Lol (I was too but then I thought, if all these other people can do it, so can I and I tried it.) you will have so much fun and Linda is so helpful- and patient. Her videos and step by step drawings are very good as well. I keep them beside me and check carefully before sewing new techniques or pattern. I am having fun sharing Inklingo with others as well! Be brave, just do it! You will feel great for the effort!
This would be the best Valentine’s Day gift ever. Fingers crossed!
Thanks for the very interesting, historical article. I really enjoyed reading it.
Also thanks for an entry in your drawing :-).
I have all the free patterns downloaded and still haven’t tried inklingo, I am a little nervous about it all but, this gift may be just what I need to take the big plunge into a new way of quilting.
Such a lovely article Linda. Thank you. I am using Inklingo for the first time to make Bonnie Hunters Celtic Soltice my first Bonnie quilt & first mystery. It is slow going but so much easier and accurate with Inklingo. I think I am add indicted to 1/2 sq. triangles using Inklingo – couldn’t stop sewing them.
I have not tried your patterns, but I WANT to.
I would love to make the “Lucy Boston” quilt.
Fifty dollars would give me a good start.
Thank You,
Paulette Doerhoff
Linda Dear,
Would you please let everyone know that I have won. They don’t have to waste time entering 😉
I love Inklingo! I am so happy with my Celtic Solstice pieces. (Haven’t sewn them together yet.) The points are so precise, the pieces are perfect. Three P’s: precise points, perfect pieces!
Thank you for the chance to win.
linsquilts.blogspot.com
Your postings are always so inspirational. I am in awe of all the intricate work people accomplish. As soon as I finish my Quilted Diamonds Quilt, I hope to play around with some of the Inklingo
designs.
Thank you for keeping me motivated.
It is always exciting when Inklingo gets exposure in a magazine! And the blocks you’ve used in the blog are amazing!! Well done, all! Lucy Boston is indeed, an inspiration! As are you, Linda! Thank you, thank you for Inklingo!!!
It is indeed a GREAT time to be a quilter! I have enough trouble finding the time to quilt even with all the time saving ideas and gadgets. I can’t imagine trying to get something done with limited notions, fabric, light, etc!
I just love castle wall quilt. Can’t wait to get mine.