Tuesday 18 December 2012

A quilt to take my mind off things


Well, here she is.  All finished.  I'm amazed I actually got it done before the baby arrived.  Often I start projects with the best of intentions and then get distracted by something else that's taken my fancy.  It's been good to have something to do to keep busy while I wait for the little one to arrive.


This is the second quilt I've made.  And boy, was it a steep learning curve!  The last quilt I made, I pieced it, but palmed it off to a lady from church to do the hard work - the quilting.  It was a bed-size quilt and there was no way I was going to be able to do it on my little domestic sewing machine.  It was also a gift, so I didn't want to stuff it up.  Particularly considering it took me about three years to finish it.  No joke.


This one was much more manageable though.  It's only about 33 inches x 45, or so.  I'm really pleased with the colours.  One of the quilting books I borrowed from my local library recently talked about 'stretching' the colours, and not just sticking to one type of red or yellow or whatever the theme is.  I don't know whether I achieved this to the author's standard, but I felt I gave it a good go.


And it's entirely made from what I had in my fabric stash and scraps container.  The backing is a leaf patterned batik quilting cotton given to me by my mum or sister.  Not really my style normally, but the colours matched so it was good to be able to use it up.  Waste not, want not!


It wasn't my intention, but the colours match perfectly with some cushions I bought from Country Road recently.  Which has made me decide to make a little pile of quilts for the TV room that can be used when the weather is cool, or for baby blankets for the floor.  I'm sure there's plenty of ways they'll be useful.  Even if it's just to keep Rosie amused, unfolding them and 'repositioning' them all over the room :)


And I've always loved the idea of being able to go to my cupboards and choose from a selection of home-made quilts to give to a guest needing an extra blanket.  I do believe my love of quilting has been reignited (or perhaps lit for the first time...?).


 As I said, it was a steep learning curve, because I like to dive in the deep end before I actually know how to swim properly, if you know what I mean ;)  There was a little bit of learning on the fly, but hey, who would ever do anything if you always had to know exactly how to do it perfectly before you even started??  Where's the fun in that?  It does sound less stressful though.


I love how it's all crinkly and worn looking already.  Homely.  That's how quilts should be, I reckon.  Sometimes our lack of capacity in things can add depth and texture to what we do.  I'll just keep telling myself that anyway :)


And I already know what my next project is.  But first, I need to go and clean up my sewing room.  It seriously looks like a bomb has hit it.

Labels: ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home