quilting

These are a few of my favorite things

Submitted by domesticat on 6 March 2010 - 11:31pm

This quilt has a secret. I'd intended to make a game of it, but someone spilled the beans on Flickr.

I might actually be ready to do some circles now.
['I might actually be ready to do some circles now.']

This quilt is 'White Librarian.' It's based off of a redpepperquilts design (Bricks and Stones) I purchased a while back. The original was only a lap-sized quilt, and I wanted something bigger. Bolder. I decided I wanted to make a new bedspread out of it, so I took the general idea of the design and scaled it up. I had to add an extra row, and I scaled up the size in a few places, but it's very obviously based on her design.

The smallest squares in this quilt are 2.5" unfinished, or 2" finished. Take those out of the equation.

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bright, bubbly, bawdy

Submitted by domesticat on 19 February 2010 - 12:36am

I haven't sewed much this week. Getting ready for Wednesday's rollout at work consumed most of my energy; by the end of each night, all I wanted to do was turn into a little couch lump. Dragging myself to the sewing machine wasn't a high priority; rest and antacids were.

It still feels a little strange, knowing that I'm actually keeping this quilt once it's done.

Each by each
['Each by each']

This quilt is surprisingly personal. The fabrics were all gifts specifically for me, or have other personal meanings. I mean, c'mon, there's a print about brassieres and a print about sexual positions. It's a bright, bubbly, and bawdy little thing. Of course I'm keeping it.

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Quiltifesto.

Submitted by domesticat on 9 February 2010 - 11:19pm

After a day filled with code that didn't work and deadlines that aren't budging and phones that just didn't stay quiet when I needed them to, I present this response to a question that was innocently asked but just irritated me:  "What does modern quilting mean to you?"

Soapbox ACTIVATE!

If you go by date, I am a modern quilter, because I am doing a craft that my great-grandmother did, but I do it after a day of working on databases and writing code.

I noticed that a group of people all seemed to classify themselves as "modern quilters" but a lot of their work looked similar to me. It took a little more digging before I found out who Denyse Schmidt was, and once I saw photos of her work, things made more sense to me. If the litmus test for "modern quilter" is "Are you a Denyse Schmidt fan?" then nope, I suppose I'm not.

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The Red Librarian

Submitted by domesticat on 7 February 2010 - 11:29am
Date: 
6 February 2010
Partial assemblage
Source: Flickr
Recipient: 
me! I'm keeping it! Neener!
Pattern: 
Color Block
Blog entries referencing this quilt: 
About the Red Librarian
bright, bubbly, bawdy

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 1 February 2010 - 12:12am

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 - 10:22pm

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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