I've been bitten by the quilt bug. Witness:
This is a "Cars" quilt I made especially for Little Man (and being modeled by Monkey Boy). Grandma O took LM and his cousins to see the movie a while back and LM is totally into anything "Cars". Recently, we found some Lightening McQueen fabric that I used to make into a pillowcase. There was a little over a yard left of the fabric and LM said he wanted a blanket. So what did I think of? A quilt of course!
I had the black fabric in my stash, but had to buy the yellow hazard stripe and the checkered fabric. LM and I laid out the strips, playing with them till LM liked the way everything looked. Yesterday we went to Joann's and LM picked out the fleece backing. I didn't want a really heavy quilt so instead of using batting inside, I just sewed the front directly onto the fleece backing. At the time I wasn't sure it would work (cuz what do I know about quilting?!?), but it turned out fine. Here are some more closeups:
The fleece backing:
It turns out that I made what's called a "summer quilt"- the backing and front are quilted together sans batting to produce a lightweight blanket. For only my second try at quilting, I'm pretty pleased. The strips were a lot quicker to sew together than the piecing type of blocks and I like the way they look. There are some really crooked seams up close, but LM doesn't seem to care and I'm not about to worry about it.
After my Log Cabin class at the local quilt shop, I wasn't so sure that I wanted to keep quilting. There was too much Perfectionism involved, IMO. All those little tiny peices of fabric...and the Math. Not to mention the "musts" (as in, "you must use 100% cotton thread or DIE", "you must have three different colors of fabric or DIE", etc. etc.). But after winging it on this strip quilt, I can definately say that I've been hooked by quilting. All that gorgeous fabric is just as much fun to browse as yarn. Plus the FOs are done a lot faster (3 days for this little quilt). So I'll probably end up doing some more blankets- just don't expect me to start wearing pink sweatshirts appliqued with patchwork florals. *shudder*
And lest you think that I've abandoned the knitting completely, here's a glimpse of my Prairie Tunic:
Now I'm off to hit Costco with the boyz and stock up on mega rolls of TP!
5 comments:
That tunic will look great on you....
Love the quilt!
That is a gorgeous quilt! I'm with you on the fabric being as addictive as yarn-I can't stay away from either.
The quilt is wonderful! Remember that quilt classes are meant to reach the masses and are only a guideline. Play with it and have fun or it is not worth doing. (Psst: no one will notice the "wonky" and if they do, they deserve a few million jabs with a needle)
I love it!! I have made a couple quilts and have yet to make a "traditional" design... all those tiny calico prints, YUCK! I've searched dozens of books trying to find a pattern that spoke to me. Finally I gave up and broke out some graph paper and designed something myself. Then went to the fabric store and found prints that I liked and put them together. I have to say it is very satisfying to have complete creative flexibility. One quilt I only used a printed fabric for the border, then used all bold primary colors for the blocks in large triangles and squares, it turned out awesome. After I made my first quilts and went back to look at my Great Grandmother's quilts, they were not traditional, they were functional. Primarily using left over stash from other sewing projects.
You've got the right idea, keep up the good work!!!
Love the Cars quilt - and I know that LM must be just thrilled with it. I also think your idea of making a summer quilt was a brilliant one!
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