Sunday, July 31, 2011
My first quilt project, and a more recent one..
5:54 PM
Okay! When did the quilting bug bite you.. or has it yet?
When did it bite me? Hmm. Hard question. Your guess is as good as mine. I think I've always been fascinated with patchwork, b/c I grew up around a lot of "sewers". BUT, I don't think I was infected with the quilting virus at first bite. I think I just became a latent carrier--who dabbled a little bit, but never developed a full blown case until after my son was born almost five years ago. Prior to that, I had only made two quilts.
The first quilt I ever made was about 10 years ago (maybe longer-I'm kind of in denial about how fast time flies). I had a bag of clothes that I didn't wear anymore.. of the late 80's-early 90's variety.. painfully, hideously out of style. BUT, in their hey-day, I LOVED them. So I saved them and finally one day decided to cut them up and make a quilt. Not out of a love of quilting so much, but more out of a need to get rid of the bag of really old clothes that I kept hidden away.. That took up my closet space. A girl needs her closet space! I NEEDED to part with these clothes. But the little corner of my brain that inherited the pack rat trait from my mother, just COULDN'T.
(Side note about my mom: She comes by the pack rat trait honestly. From her parents. Both avid yard-salers back in the day.. seriously, my grandpa never met a yard sale he didn't like. Their garage looked like a junk shop/antique store sometimes. Anyway, I digress. I think I warned about that in a previous post. :)
So anyway, what's a girl to do? COMPROMISE. I found a way to keep the clothes, but turn them into something useful. I "repurposed" them before "repurposing" was cool. Or maybe it has always been cool. Who knows. It ended up being a zigzag quilt. Not sure if that's the official term for it or not. I pieced the top, choosing a lightweight denim for the background and used some yardage that I had for the backing. Polka dots. LOVE polka dots. LOVE. As in drool. The binding is the same as the backing. It won't win any awards but it is warm and nostalgic, and that started my interest in quilting... :)
(btw: I'm new to blogger, and don't quite understand why my picture is sideways when I loaded it. Hmm. Hints appreciated.)
My grandmother, and her mother and aunts had always hand quilted, so that's the only thing I knew. I took it to my grandmother's house, she and my mom stretched it out in a frame in the family room, and they did most of the hand quilting. Although, I tried to chip in, even though I didn't know how. One hand above, one hand below, and passing the needle back and forth through the quilt from hand to hand is not really the ideal way to hand quilt. But, at the time, it's all I could do. My poor black and blue pin cushion fingers. However, I finally got the hang of it, and today I love to hand quilt.... when I have the time for it. It's very relaxing. My stitches aren't always even, or super small, but I'm just happy that I figured out how to do it the "right" way and there aren't little blood stains all over the fabric anymore!
Here is a teaser for a future post: This is a project that I am hand quilting that I've had in the frame since last summer. Boo on me. Just haven't been focused on it. A few things going on, but hopefully I can return to it soon! It's just hard to spend a lot of time sitting at the frame with a four year old running around the house. It doesn't take too long, actually, it's just the sitting down and doing it part. I am freehand drawing the flowers on the semicircles.
I will blog about that one another time. I LOVE it. It has a history, and a story to tell that I wish I knew more of.
Ciao for now! :)
When did it bite me? Hmm. Hard question. Your guess is as good as mine. I think I've always been fascinated with patchwork, b/c I grew up around a lot of "sewers". BUT, I don't think I was infected with the quilting virus at first bite. I think I just became a latent carrier--who dabbled a little bit, but never developed a full blown case until after my son was born almost five years ago. Prior to that, I had only made two quilts.
The first quilt I ever made was about 10 years ago (maybe longer-I'm kind of in denial about how fast time flies). I had a bag of clothes that I didn't wear anymore.. of the late 80's-early 90's variety.. painfully, hideously out of style. BUT, in their hey-day, I LOVED them. So I saved them and finally one day decided to cut them up and make a quilt. Not out of a love of quilting so much, but more out of a need to get rid of the bag of really old clothes that I kept hidden away.. That took up my closet space. A girl needs her closet space! I NEEDED to part with these clothes. But the little corner of my brain that inherited the pack rat trait from my mother, just COULDN'T.
(Side note about my mom: She comes by the pack rat trait honestly. From her parents. Both avid yard-salers back in the day.. seriously, my grandpa never met a yard sale he didn't like. Their garage looked like a junk shop/antique store sometimes. Anyway, I digress. I think I warned about that in a previous post. :)
So anyway, what's a girl to do? COMPROMISE. I found a way to keep the clothes, but turn them into something useful. I "repurposed" them before "repurposing" was cool. Or maybe it has always been cool. Who knows. It ended up being a zigzag quilt. Not sure if that's the official term for it or not. I pieced the top, choosing a lightweight denim for the background and used some yardage that I had for the backing. Polka dots. LOVE polka dots. LOVE. As in drool. The binding is the same as the backing. It won't win any awards but it is warm and nostalgic, and that started my interest in quilting... :)
(btw: I'm new to blogger, and don't quite understand why my picture is sideways when I loaded it. Hmm. Hints appreciated.)
My grandmother, and her mother and aunts had always hand quilted, so that's the only thing I knew. I took it to my grandmother's house, she and my mom stretched it out in a frame in the family room, and they did most of the hand quilting. Although, I tried to chip in, even though I didn't know how. One hand above, one hand below, and passing the needle back and forth through the quilt from hand to hand is not really the ideal way to hand quilt. But, at the time, it's all I could do. My poor black and blue pin cushion fingers. However, I finally got the hang of it, and today I love to hand quilt.... when I have the time for it. It's very relaxing. My stitches aren't always even, or super small, but I'm just happy that I figured out how to do it the "right" way and there aren't little blood stains all over the fabric anymore!
Here is a teaser for a future post: This is a project that I am hand quilting that I've had in the frame since last summer. Boo on me. Just haven't been focused on it. A few things going on, but hopefully I can return to it soon! It's just hard to spend a lot of time sitting at the frame with a four year old running around the house. It doesn't take too long, actually, it's just the sitting down and doing it part. I am freehand drawing the flowers on the semicircles.
I will blog about that one another time. I LOVE it. It has a history, and a story to tell that I wish I knew more of.
Ciao for now! :)
Labels:hand quilting,quilts | 7
comments...
Saturday, July 30, 2011
This involved stitches.. but not the crafty kind.
11:53 PM
Meet the family pet, Buster. Whose bark is considerably higher in pitch than it used to be. If you know what I mean. Poor Buster. He is a one and a half year old Newfie, and the canine love of my life. Sweet Buster. Eyes full of soul.
This is my very first ever blogger post. I have a blog at Xanga also, but haven't used it in a while. I have been lurking around blogger blogs for quite some time, though. So I'm excited to officially "follow" the ones I like now. It is my intention to mostly post about crafty things, or other random stitch related things, but I must warn you. I may digress on occasion. That is my right as a woman... right? ;) Thanks for reading. I am going to try to post this now. Wish me luck on my new adventure!
This is my very first ever blogger post. I have a blog at Xanga also, but haven't used it in a while. I have been lurking around blogger blogs for quite some time, though. So I'm excited to officially "follow" the ones I like now. It is my intention to mostly post about crafty things, or other random stitch related things, but I must warn you. I may digress on occasion. That is my right as a woman... right? ;) Thanks for reading. I am going to try to post this now. Wish me luck on my new adventure!
Labels:Newfoundland dog | 1 comments...
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