Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Beginning Kim's Quilt

Kim! Spoiler Alert!!!

My friend Kim commissioned a quilt from me. Her guidelines were broad: orangey-red, browns; warm, rich colors; use up-cycled goods. I've been shopping other stashes I know about and even bought a corduroy shirt at Salvation Army.

Tonight I just couldn't think of a reason not to begin (well, except for vacuuming and piffle, vacuuming).

And I despaired because it looked ugly. I rarely do "pretty" as an aesthetic for anything, but really, I told myself, maybe I should have aimed more for pretty here. All the fabric seemed so strange, but I made myself work on the block for an hour because patchwork is magical after a few rows.

I really really like it. What do you think?




I am cutting, designing, and sewing all in one swoop. It's more time consuming than I thought; I don't know enough about quilting to know if anyone else does it this way. My plan at this point is to machine quilt stitch in the ditch (maybe using yellow thread!). I haven't found a backing yet. I want to start sleuthing for a sheet

4 comments:

Leila said...

Hi Margo! Good for you! I think it will be great. You should google "quilts of Gee's Bend" -- the way you describe your process is like these ladies' way. They talk about putting some fabrics together and seeing what happens, and their quilts are quite alive.

I find that the more quilting I do, the happier I am with the finished product.

Margo said...

I will check it out - thanks for the tip! And thanks for the good word of a seasoned quilter. . .

Anonymous said...

The aqua is a stroke of genius.
Rebecca

Meghan said...

I reminded me of Gee's Bend quilts, too!