The White Librarian

Submitted by domesticat on 7 February 2010 - 10:06pm
Date: 
7 February 2010
The "White Librarian" -- plans
Source: Flickr
Recipient: 
meeee!
Pattern: 
Bricks and Stones

As promised, here's the mockup of the White Librarian quilt. It, too, is intended to be a pretty easy little quilt.  I'm including a shot of the original quilt for reference.  The pattern is called "Bricks and Stones," from redpepperquilts, and is available for sale on etsy. I bought the pattern even though I knew it was for a lap-sized quilt; some knowledge of multiplication tables and Adobe Illustrator would fix the rest of the problem.

I tried to stay pretty true to the pattern, because I really like it.

This, too, is a quilt I intend to keep. The fabrics were a gift to me from Jacob, and were all chosen with me in mind. It is intended as a companion to the Red Librarian quilt.

Adam's wedding quilt

Submitted by domesticat on 7 February 2010 - 10:20am
Date: 
26 January 2010
Draft 1
Source: Flickr
Recipient: 
Adam and Brenda
Pattern: 
Mariner's Compass
Blog entries referencing this quilt: 
How to make a quilt in just 17,364 easy steps!
Armchair quarterback quilting!

This is the placeholder for Adam and Brenda's wedding quilt. It has a name, though I'm strangely hesitant to say it yet. This quilt is by far the most technically difficult quilt I've ever attempted, and I anticipate I'll work on some easier, snack-food quilts on the side during its construction to help keep me sane.

The Red Librarian

Submitted by domesticat on 7 February 2010 - 10:29am
Date: 
6 February 2010
Red Librarian fabrics
Source: Flickr
Recipient: 
me! I'm keeping it! Neener!
Pattern: 
Color Block
Blog entries referencing this quilt: 
About the Red Librarian

This quilt isn't kid-friendly, or work-safe, or any kind of two word sobriquet. It's also not tactful or tasteful. It's also not being given away, which is a first.

For months now, I've had an ongoing dialogue with a friend, who has referred to my public side and my private side as the "white librarian" and the "red librarian." I've been amassing fabrics through various sources that I have loved and couldn't imagine parting with; I now have enough to actually make a 'Red Librarian' quilt as well as a 'White Librarian' quilt. Rest assured that every fabric in this quilt has a story. You may not hear all of them, but they exist.

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Armchair quarterback quilting!

Submitted by domesticat on 31 January 2010 - 11:12pm

So, want to feel like you've done a Mariner's Compass star block, and an obnoxiously complicated one at that, without actually going through the effort of doing so? Thanks to my handy-dandy digital camera, now you can! (Full flickr photoset is available here.)

So say you've started off by designing a star you think is complicated but nifty in Adobe Illustrator. You extend out lines so you know how to cut fabric for the negative space around the star, and then print out one quarter of the star, like this:

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How to make a quilt in just 17,364 easy steps!

Submitted by domesticat on 28 January 2010 - 9:22pm

Some people have a bucket list. I get the general idea but I find the approach depressing. I'd rather think of the process of life instead of focusing on its endpoint; as a result, I refer to my list as a Life List.

#5: Successfully complete a Mariner's Compass quilt.

I accomplished a few things on my life list in 2009, and as we well know, the only thing I like better than adding things to a list is crossing something off of a list, so I've been eyeballing #5 for a while. After Adam announced his engagement, I realized his wedding quilt was likely to be as good an opportunity as any. Here was a friend who took a great deal of pleasure in subtle things that were carefully made; even two seconds' worth of thought told me that something with right angles and straight seams just wasn't going to do.

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Where's your sash, Miss America?

Submitted by domesticat on 25 January 2010 - 10:35pm

Definitely progress. It lacks horizontal sashing, and the final border, but this is very nearly a finished quilt top:

Where's your sash, Miss America?
['Where's your sash, Miss America?']

I learned some things along the way. If I'm going to do this again, I need to be really careful about pieces bowing inward in the middle. I also need to make my last stripe fairly substantial, so that I don't trim most of it away when cutting it down to the finished size.

Offset squares are good. Uneven is good. Some of the squares weren't quite big enough, and I had two choices; add another round, which would then get trimmed down, or use extra background fabric and end up with deliberately mismatched square sizes. I opted for the latter. I liked the thought of it being a little homey and uneven.

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