Sunday, August 16, 2009

View from the Top (Again)

The first time I made it a quilt, I likened it to reaching the top of a mountain in this now (slightly) more-familiar world of quilting. I still feel that way.

I’ve been a little embarrassed about this quilt, because it was so easily pieced out of large squares of fabric. I still wish I had put a little more effort into cutting and piecing the fabric, but now I know that I just didn’t have the self-confidence. Completing this quilt, though, has given me that confidence, so I have even bigger (meaning, of course “smaller” in terms of the piece size) plans for the next quilt. And so, here’s the quilt that I love not just for itself, but for everything it has taught me:

serendipity_complete

serendipity_folded

Making this quilt was just what I needed right now—no pressure to be creative, just a nice, solid project to take one step at a time. I finally used the fabric I bought a very long time ago just because I like it. Plus, we really needed a quilt for the guest room (the sofa in the picture above has a pull-out double-sized bed), so I feel like I’ve done something practical. And, as I said, I both learned a lot in the process of completing this quilt, and gained enough confidence to tackle something a little more difficult.

Now, I’m anxious to get started on the next quilt, and I’m trying to convert a double-sized pattern to a queen-sized one, and figure out whether I have enough fabric to manage that size. I see now why quilter’s complain about the math involved.

Here are some of the raw ingredients for the next quilt--fabric that’s been tucked in a drawer for a couple of years:

fabric

Stay tuned for progress notes and pictures!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

It's lovely... and we all have to start somewhere- I have a couple of similar quilts I made in order to learn how to bind a quilt properly. I may never use that info again (I love things to be unexpected lol) but now I know how, and that was important to me.

Baby steps... I'll take them with you. :D

Fannie said...

Loved reading your insights. As our quilt stash and fabric stash grows, so do we. Isn't that wonderful? When I'm working on one quilt, my mind races with ideas for the next one. That could be a reason why I have UFOs! :-D Thanks for sharing.