Sunday, April 25, 2021

I’ve been working on That Fairy Tale Quilt today. Finally Hansel and Gretel are done – far from perfect but done.

As I stitched and restitched, cut and recut I couldn’t help but think of the actual fairy tale. Hansel and Gretel were lost (or abandoned depending on what version you read) in the forest and discovered by a witch. She may have had good intentions to start with, giving them shelter and food. But along the way maybe Hansel and Gretel just got too mischievous and the witch was driven mad. Granted planning to eat them goes a bit too far but I can understand the frustration if that is what happened.

I started out with the best of intentions. I had Gretel done and a head made for Hansel. But then I decided to switch the head around so the brother and sister would both be looking at the gingerbread house (yet to be constructed). All was going well until I added legs to Hansel and realized that his body would be pointing in a different direction from his head (and that is more like the movie The Exorcist) so I decided that they would face each other as the pattern showed. Fortunately I had a head that was going in the right direction in my scrap bin (and that brings out a definite horror-movie feel) and I managed to get them both finished and good enough.

And just as I was about to put them away I noticed that Gretel had removed her shoe and put it back on upside down. I fixed it but that was the last straw (are you thinking the Three Little Pigs?) – no gingerbread house today!