Monday, 18 August 2003

The top of the quilt codenamed Pines is almost finished. One more border edge to do and then the top will be done. It was such a pain to baste and quilt Rose Petal that I may defer basting Pines for a bit. I just placed an order at Hancock's ordering some more batting as I'm running short. And I ordered a bunch of fabric for the quilt codenamed Berries -- which uses 8 different fabrics in the current design.

Next up is to begin cutting the fabric for the quilt codenamed Medal; only three fabrics, but oddly-shaped pieces for this one. C recommended that I use some stiffening spray, so I ordered some of that as well and won't start piecing until that arrives.

In the meantime, I have a couple more blocks-of-the-month from Jo Threads (that L has been buying for me) to work on.

Many, many projects! Pictures of Rose Petal (quilt and design) coming soon. Stay tuned!

Your productivity is inspiring!

Do you ever get nervous about cutting fabric? I have some raw silk I bought for a purse that I paid a whole lotta bucks for, and I'm afraid to cut it -- it's so marvelous I'm afraid I might ruin it!

      Quilty comment by katxena on 20 August 2003

No, I don't worry about cutting fabric for two reasons: 1) so far, I only use quilting cottons and 2) I always try to buy plenty of extra so that even if I screw up majorly, I can recover.

For Rose Petal, I didn't have quite as much leftover white fabric as I'd thought, and so I had to be pretty careful when doing the last few pieces to make sure not to make a mistake and run out, but otherwise I've managed to give myself enough leeway to be a bit sloppy.

Come to think of it, I am getting to the point where I have a lot of scraps, and so some kind of scrappy quilt may be on my horizon for an '04 project.

      Quilty comment by Uncorked on 20 August 2003

I'm really, really tempted to make a string quilt. All those delightful little bits sewn together in straightish lines make me feel really happy for some reason.

But there's a whole bunch of purses in the works ahead of that, including the silk purse I mentioned above. It's for me, it's purple, and I really need to get over my fear of the material.

      Quilty comment by katxena on 21 August 2003

What's a string quilt? A quilt made out of thin strips of fabric? Bargello-ish but without a strict pattern?

      Quilty comment by Uncorked on 22 August 2003

Here's a picture:
http://www.dsquilts.com/string.html

I like all the little bits. I've been reading a book about African American quilting and apparently the string quilt is a really common pattern among Southern blacks and it harkens back to a traditional pattern in African weaving.

      Quilty comment by Katxena on 22 August 2003

Yeah, thats the kind of thing I was thinking. I have a picture of a really cool string quilt in one of my books -- next time you’re in the house remind me and I will try to find it and show it to you.

      Quilty comment by Uncorked on 22 August 2003

If you did more quilting on Rose Petal it would be less wrinkly...just an fyi...there are lots and lots of string quilt patterns around..the latest that has caught my eye and actually is going on my to do list is from a magazine called Fabric Trends by The Quilter Magazine..it's Issue #2 www.fabrictrends.com and on page 87. They do paper piecing method-it's the black background and the setting that really make this quilt design an eye-catcher for me.
oops, this is getting long-anyway-great job on getting this quilt finished and nice pictures!

      Quilty comment by Cher on 23 August 2003

Cher -- Thanks. I know if I did more quilting it would help, but I really hate the actual quilting part of making quilts. So I get impatient and do the minimum. We'll see what I decided to do with Pines, though...

The Fabric Trends magazine looks really interesting! I couldn't find an easy way to subscribe to it, though.

      Quilty comment by Uncorked on 28 August 2003

Are there directions for this quilt pattern?

      Quilty comment by Tina on 4 October 2003

No. See this post for more information.

      Quilty comment by Uncorked on 23 October 2003

Several weeks ago I was playing around with some quilt design ideas and came up with the following two variations on a theme. I call this design Starry Windows (v1 and v2). I like the windowpane effect that sashing gives. I don't know that I'll ever make this quilt, but I do think it's pretty.