Sunday, June 8, 2014

Blast From the Past

I brought a couple of quilts home from Dayna's last week to wash in our front-loading, large capacity washing machine.  Hers needed a little repair: four places, each about 2" long, had come undone in the hand-stitched binding.  So, after washing it, putting it in the dryer for 10 minutes to dry a bit, and then laying it out flat to finish drying, I repaired those places.  Only one outside pic today as it's raining.

This is the second quilt I have made her, and it has been well-loved over the years.  Our dogs and cats have slept on it, (she has slept with an animal since she was 3, maybe less!) and now her two cats sleep on it every night.  One corner got a little extra loving by one of her cats and is a tad chewed. . .

but thankfully, that has stopped.

I finished this quilt in March 2005, but spent the majority of 2004 working on it.  It's from WedgeWorks II, by Cheryl Phillips.  Our guild bought the book, a friend of mine came over one day, and we each made a block.  It is a way to make a 3-D Mariner's Compass block using folded wedges of fabric.  I still have that original block, ahem, yep another UFO, or orphan block!



Dayna has always loved purple.  I knew I wanted to use the pansy fabric as a focal fabric.  On a guild bus trip shop hop, I got some of the purple as well as the black.  The backing is a gorgeous brushed cotton.
SO much texture, love, love, love it
I quilted this quilt in thirds, see my post on that here, and I used a quilt basting spray.

I wanted some bling on the stars, so used Sulky metallics and holoshimmer threads.  I used Sulky rayon for the purple and the black areas.  My Bernina Artista 180, relatively new to me then, (bought on Grey Cup day, 2003) handled them all wonderfully.  It's quite heavily quilted.  I edge-stitch quilted the floral star, and then did a wavy line down the points of all 16 so the edges of the two purple star points "float" and can be lifted a bit.

A flower design of my own!!  Way back then!

I have loved feathers pretty much all my quilting life...
Trapunto would have helped the motif to "pop" more

Although I have not named all my quilts, I have labelled every one.  This one shows how long I have been piecing in the label as a part of the backing!! 

I did a fairly loose flower with some random leaves meander in the black border areas of the quilt.  I saw it in American Patchwork & Quilting magazine, can't recall what issue, but around 2004!
Ahh, quilty lushness.

I've loved looking after this quilt for a week, but it will go back home to Dayna tomorrow.



4 comments:

  1. "Has come undone"

    Yep. All by itself. No help at all. Especially not from Harper or Izzie. Definitely not.

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  2. I suppose if it must go home, it must :) It's lovely and I'd have trouble letting go of it twice! I'll have to check the library for that book.

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  3. What a beautiful quilt!! I think a week looking at it would result in it not going back home. . . if it were me ;)

    Our lovely new puppy did the exact same thing to the first 'real' quilt I made. . . only he took a chunk out about the size of a softball!! Still haven't figured out how to fix it. Little turd!

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  4. Oh wow, LOVE the mariner's compass, looks exactly like one! And of course, my fave colour too - purple!!! Methinks I recognize the pansy fabric from something that Mum owns?? Like a bag or runner? I don't know, it looks like some fabric I've seen before!

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