BLOG 254
I have had a busy week, looking after 2 chocolate Labradors,
preparing for Australian relatives and keeping up with the ever-burgeoning garden.
No rain has been good for dog-sitting but it has meant a lot of watering had to
be done. Constant winds on the hill have made the dogs frisky and the tall
plants have required some staking to hold them steady. The arrival of visitors
has required some modest housework and the layers of dust have been disturbed
temporarily so that they can land somewhere else. It has all been great fun on
the social side but, as you can imagine, little sewing has been achieved. So, I
thought I’d show a quilt that I made many moons ago and which has never seen
the light of day publically.
In my early quilting days, I was always on the look-out for
originality anywhere and everywhere. I traced tiles from bathroom floors, made
rubbings of unusual dimensional patterns, photographed buildings and pavement designs
and collected motifs and pictures from cards and magazines that might eventually
inspire me. Come the day when we went for afternoon tea at an aged auntie’s
house. There on the table was a lovely cutwork tablecloth; it was beautifully
starched and ironed and the outline of the pattern was delicately sewn in
buttonhole stitch with pastel embroidery threads. It was someone’s masterpiece
from a generation ago, their pride and joy, and I loved it! I subsequently
borrowed this treasure and this is what I was inspired to make.
To give the appearance of cutwork holes, brown fabric was
used. The flowers and leaves were painstakingly defined with 1/8” bias binding.
Here is the centre motif with a spider’s web quilting pattern, defined using an
Italian quilting technique.
A larger spray of flowers was positioned next, pointing to
each corner
Excuse 1: I never
wash my fabrics before I use them (life’s too short!); I like to work with the
stiffness or ‘body’ that the dressing gives to the fabric.
Excuse 2: Because
I was excited with my design on paper and wanted to get going right away. I
chose an inferior calico from stock (it’ll do!) as a background for the quilt.
Excuse 3: Once I
start a piece of work, I put my head down and work on it over a period of time until
I have finished, even if I have the smallest inkling that the design deserves better
fabric. I don’t like to waste my efforts (I won’t admit to myself that I may
have got it wrong!); I’ve started so I’ll finish!
Excuse 4: I let a
cat snuggle on a corner (aw cute!) whilst I was hand (yes hand!!) quilting the
background. When that cat eventually deigned to rise, yawn and stretch, it left
a muddy paw print or three on a corner.
Excuse 5: To
rectify this, I bunged the quilt in the washing machine once all the quilting
was completed, closed my eyes and walked away thus allowing the machine to
dictate the finished look of the quilt (it’ll be alright on the night!). The
inferior background shrank and distorted, leaving a creased but prettily
decorated rag!This quilt went into stock, at the bottom of the pile and I
learned many valuable lessons from it. And I think it was probably the last
time I hand quilted a quilt. I use it now as a throw in the far recesses of a
bedroom where it can’t be seen publically. It seemed like a good idea at the
time and, even now, I think there is a lot of design potential here. Whether I
will go back and visit the idea remains to be seen, but don’t forget that you
saw it on this Blog first!!
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