Quilts · Textiles & Fabric

Mini-quilts

Elizabeth E.1 Comment

I love this photo of the wall of mini-quilts from the book just out from Whip-Up, apparently full of great ideas for mini-quilts.

I have my own mini-quilt wall, but not all mine are up (add another thing to the list).  I pushed them up with thumbtacks in a little unused corner of our hallway cupboards (hence, the crookedness) but I enjoy looking at them as I pass by. The one on the left is from a fractured landscapes class I took from Katie Pasquini Masopust some years ago in Houston, and the one in the center is from a Laura Waskilowski fusing class.  When I used to take classes from the pros I felt the need to make large–BIG–quilts incorporating their techniques. Then at some point I wised up, and made mini-quilts.  I learned what they were teaching, and had a “sample” of the technique.  I could then decide if I wanted to go on to a bigger quilt, or if the small one was enough.  Less fabric to carry to class, and I usually finished the sample that day, instead of adding another UFO to the stack in my sewing closet.  Win-win, in my book.

The mini quilt on the right is from Peru and is called an arpillera.  We almost bought one in a shop in San Francisco (I had to look through all of them!) but the prices were a bit dear, so my husband found some online for me to choose from and I got it there.

And on a somewhat related note. . . Candy Bars!

I bit, and bought.

They have a little booklet of ideas in the bottom of the box–I see another possible mini-quilt for my wall.

100 Quilts · Something to Think About

Hooray! Blues Top Completed

Elizabeth E.1 Comment

Here it is, hanging over our stair banister, all complete.  Today’s task is to sew the backing (it’s the same fabric as the “fans” just up from the bottom on the very right) and take it over to Cathy, my quilter.

There’s a nice rhythm to piecing a quilt like this: rows and rows and stacks and stacks of squares slide under the presser foot to become a bed covering.  I like the complex quilts, like the Christmas Star.  I also like more artsy quilts like Provence (Lyon Carolings is the real name), where the play of fabric becomes the focal point.

Piecing a one-patch is kind of like vacuuming the house, I think, but certainly in a more enjoyable way.  It’s not fancy, nor particularly noticeable, but when the whole house has been vacuumed it gives off a certain pleasure of being clean, ship-shape if you will, or perhaps even just being done for another few days.  My life has lots of corners like that.  Getting the make-up on when only running a few errands outside the house.  Cleaning off the computer desk.  Finishing a good book. Writing daily in the journal.

It’s the acculumation of patches that makes this quilt, just like it’s the accumulation of tiny tasks that make up a life.  None seem particularly noteworthy on their own, but the bits, pieces, squares, and patterns make the whole.  Make it complete.

100 Quilts

Blues, continued

Elizabeth E.

Trying to keep the random effect in my quilt assembly, I laid out all my blue squares, and just sewed them together in strips of 4 squares or six squares, and laid them out on the floor (below).

Then I put them up on the pin wall, but they wouldn’t all fit.  So, I started from the bottom, making sure that the randomness remained, ripping out and moving around and sewing together.  For as many squares as there were (12 squares across by 17 squares down) I had minimal ripping out.  The bottom rows look like rectangles, but that’s just because I overlapped them in order to keep working–I needed to see all the squares as I worked.  Now to sew them all together and get it to the quilter before I go on vacation.

(Where’s Provence?  I still have no idea how to quilt it, or even what color thread to quilt it in, so it’s resting.)