Gerda’s Shoo-Fly

Book(s): The Runaway Quilt, Return to Elm Creek

In The Runaway Quilt, Gerda Bergstrom learns to quilt only so that she might participate in the political discussions that occur at the quilting bees hosted by her best friend, Dorothea Granger Nelson. Her inattention and impatience result in a first quilt marred by a conspicuous error. Dorothea laughingly encourages her to pronounce the mistake a Humility block, deliberately included to preserve her quilt from prideful perfection. The pattern for “Gerda’s Shoo-Fly” appears in my second pattern book, Return to Elm Creek (C&T Publishing, 2004).

Machine pieced and quilted by Laura Blanchard using fabrics from "Elm Creek Quilts: Gerda's Collection" from Red Rooster Fabrics, 2003.