A Raccoon

This little guy is from the first paper pieced book I ever purchased and used -- all without any instructions how to do paper piecing and with only minimal instructions how to divide up the pieces and put them back together to make it all work. That was more or less in the plieoscene era of paper piecing -- I think it was at least twenty years ago. The book was called "Wild Animals". They were animals of North America -- although the author of the book was a talented quilt artist named Margaret Roth who is an Australian.

There are times when I feel like I"m the personal repository of the very dynamic changing face of American quilting, having lived through such a great variety of styles and techniques. In fact the techniques have been rolling into the magazines and quilt guilds and shows faster and faster and I absolutely am not keeping up with them now. And don't want to. I've found several techniques that I enjoy and I'm open to others but I've also learned that I do not enjoy several other techniques, most especially complex curved seam work and any kind of hand applique.

Anyway, this little raccoon was made as a swap-gift for someone who loves raccoons. I sent it along to her with a wonderful poem called "Raccoon Journal" by the late Stanley Kunitz. He was an interested but not enchanted observer of the raccoons that, according to him, invade the streets of Provincetown, Massachusetts on summer nights inspecting -- and turning over -- garbage cans and digging bone meal out of gardens where it has been used as fertilizer. He says it's "raccoon angel dust." I have not had personal acquaintance with raccoons and in my naivete find them delightful looking and amusing in nature videos.