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Do you think I’ll have crazy dreams when I sleep under this? « »
The whole quilt top is made from the scraps that I hand dyed. (I blogged about that here.) I did use two half-yards of fabric that Tonya had given me one Christmas to outline the log cabin pieces, but they’re the same tone as the turquoise that I used. The entire rest of the quilt is from that dye experience.
I like it. These fabrics look like they might have been worn by people coming through Ellis Island. They’re so sepia and sort of plain, but really intricate if you look at them closely. All of the plaids are woven, not printed. Some of the fabrics have even been brushed to peachfuzz on one side. And I think the randomness of my design is very like a really old utilitarian quilt might look. Cobbled together from whatever pieces there were. (Which is just what I did!)
Initially, I thought I might sew all of the strips together, and then cut them to make diagonal stripes, so I made a lot of looooooong strips. I cut the plaids along one stripe in the fabric (since this is woven plaid, it was either with or perpindicular to the selvage.) I also just pieced the charms (squares) together as they were, didn’t do any flying geese or even triangles. I then stitched a few stripes and a few charm strips together to make aprox. 2-foot wide sections, and then arranged those together. Then, yesterday, I decided to try a few log cabins. I hadn’t ever done any, and they look so nice (in other peoples’ quilts) so I threw a few of those in, too. Finally, I laid all of the big sections out next to each other, cut the longer strips and used those to lengthen the shorter ones, and it came out to be almost a perfect rectangle, with very few scraps left over.
I’m going to use a big piece of Tina Givens fabric for the back. It’s a nice purple and turquoise that I think will really compliment the front. It needs a whimsical fabric on the back.
I’ll let you know when I get it quilted! I’ve got two quilts that are just waiting on binding and then I can cross them off the UFO list. I don’t want them to languish too long…we all know that the longer they go unfinished, the more used we are to having them unfinished!
This is going to be a bear to lay out and sandwich! It’s at least 8 feet tall. (I need to measure so I can buy my batting!) It’s too expensive to have every quilt professionally quilted, so I’m going to try to tackle this one on my home machine. Because of all the tiny pieces, I want to quilt this one pretty tight (lots of lines). I’m predicting at least a couple of months’ work. I’ll keep you posted.
ETA: It’s 8ft 4inches by 7 feet 4 inches! We sandwiched it on the patio the other night, and I rolled it up so I could start quilting. It’s HEAVY.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 at 8:32 am and is filed under sewing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
4 Responses to “Do you think I’ll have crazy dreams when I sleep under this?”
Awesome job! Your color choices always blow me away. Can’t wait to see the finished quilt.
wow. that’s amazing!
I was thinking about a comment you once made about quilting being so expensive. It struck me as odd because I started as a sewer and have only got into the knitting in the last couple years. I easily spend more on raw materials for knitting than sewing and I buy luxury fibers for both. I guess knitting might seem less expensive because it takes so much longer to finish so you get more minutes per dollar or something. If you hand quilt, I guess that will make your time invested for dollars invested seem more reasonable to you. But you plan on machine quilting yourself. That should be fine, too. Just a comment I wanted to send you for a while and I thought today might be good.
Also, my sister and I made a nine patch this past week. she doesn’t sew much and can not knit at all. We had about two hundred dollars worth of materials from new and vintage pink panther fabrics. She asked for my help since I love the needle arts. It will take another $150 to have it professionally machine quilted (over-sized queen). I had not done a quilt in 20 years since I concentrate on apparel and home dec sewing. Incidentally, home dec and evening/formal wear are the only sewing you actually save money by doing it yourself. It is for love and superior fit, just like knitting. I had made my baby girl’s christening gown the week before as I love heirloom sewing. The quilt and gown both came out great. Rambled on, I know, but we are of an age and I really enjoy your blog and your designs.
I totally agree with crafting for the love of crafting! That’s why I knit! I didn’t really expect to save money. I think I was just in a mad ordering of fabric stage, and that *is* expensive! I realized pretty quickly, though, that the more you quilt, the more leftover fabrics and scraps you have to trade or use in other stuff.
The fabric I used for this one I got on eBay for around $20. The batting I got with a half-off coupon for about $10 (100% bamboo) and the backing was on sale for $4.98. So there are ways to quilt more cheaply than I initially started out doing it.
I just had a quilt professionally quilted, but by teaching a class at the shop, they were willing to barter with me on the cost! I may have to teach another one and have them do this one, too!