Monday, August 24, 2009

Piece by Piece

I’ve finished another pieced quilt top; this one is from a great quilting book, Jelly Roll Quilts. I’ve never owned a jelly roll, but I wanted some fairly simple patterns that used strip piecing. For this quilt, I cut all those fat quarters I’ve had forever into 2-1/2” strips, and used some white-on-white fabric for the connecting strips (cut into 1-1/2” strips).

There were a LOT of seams in this quilt, and so it was pretty disheartening to realize that my 1/4” quilting foot isn’t really 1/4”, and my blocks were off. I was able to trim them and save the quilt, but if you look closely you can see some mismatched seams!

gems_top_complete

I decided to make this quilt before using the fabric I showed in my last post; I wanted a little more practice on making a pieced quilt, and I thought I wouldn’t mind “wasting” all those fat quarters if it didn’t turn out. I’m actually pretty happy with it. It took a week to cut and piece the top, so I’m too tired to quilt it now, but that will be my next big project.

I’ve enjoyed this “break” from feeling like I have to be creative. It’s been nice to have a pattern to follow, and rote tasks to complete step-by-step. I feel like completing these pieced quilts has ordered and centered my thinking a little, and now I'm feeling a little more anxious to get back to more creative projects.

In fact, I felt a real need to do something free-form and fast and fun. The other day, I stopped by my Mom’s house and saw all the fabric postcards I’ve sent her displayed in her hallway next to the family photos. I realized I haven’t sent her one in a while, so I thread-painted flowers onto silk and turned it into a PC for her:

mom_threadpaintedflowers

I also owe a friend in Chicago a postcard, so I made this one from stitched paper:

steve_paperPC

As I mentioned a post or two back, the pieced quilts I've been making have been “practice” for the queen-sized quilt I want to make for our bed. I’m not sure whether I’ve worked up enough self-confidence to start on that one yet, or whether I need to make one more practice quilt first. I guess I’ll know when I get there!

5 comments:

Judy Alexander said...

Wow! I am really impressed. I have only do 1 small pieced quilt and that took forever. Nice job.

Rosaland Hannibal said...

I love your quilt and I always consider any mismatched seams & small imperfections as part of the character of the quilts, they all have their own personality.

If you keep making them, you get better & better at it and the confidence develops over time.

And, your postcards are wondeful!

Chris Daly said...

I love the floral postcard you created. That quilt looks like a great and quick way to burn through your stash.

Sue said...

It's a very cheerful looking quilt. In the small photo, any unevenness (whether from piecing or hanging) looks like curved seams and makes it more intriquing.

Leah said...

the quilt looks fabulous and i love that paper-stitched postcard too.