Saturday, September 20, 2008

I swear I do more than play wiht fabric but...

Today I stayed at work for about 45 minutes to have some alone time. It was nice. I was going to read a book that I bought from work, The House at Sugar Beach by Helene Cooper (not a light read but she is such a good storyteller it pulls you in). Instead I sat down to try and design and figure out a quilt that I sound a picture of at http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/projects-ideas/decorating/decorating-quilts_ss11.html (the middle one) I wanted to find something or come up with something that would allow me to use those 2 ½” squares I have been cutting from my left over fabric. I figured out how to make two that will look similar but not matchy-matchy. I wish I had a scanner so I could show you what I mean by that, but I guess I will try to describe them.

So when you look at that image you see a quilt with lots of mismatched color squares arranged checkerboard style with a plain color. There are three borders (in this instance the first one is pink, then the plain color and then green). There are also these strange boxes in the quilt which I debated if I wanted or not, but I think I do. In this one they are outlined by the outer order fabric. In my first design I followed this pattern to almost a T. I have the boxes outlining the quilt only one square in. They are five by five and seven blocks between them all. There are 10 squares total. The second is designed with the same borders and squares and spacing but instead of being checkerboard style the colored squares are more like blocks with the white/plain base being like streets that run parallel/perpendicular to each other. My plans for these quilts (when I have enough squares…I need something like over 800 for these two to be twin size) are for a guest room which I am only assuming will also be my sewing room. My plan is to have a day bed with a trundle in there so that we can have two guests without taking up too much space when no one is visiting. I figured out the pattern, the cutting needs, the fabric needs. I am proud of myself, but it wasn’t a complicated concept. It just took me some time to draw it out and do some calculations. It was actually really fun!

I just bought a quilt kit online. It is my first one that I have bought but I don’t anticipate it being my last. I do love taking a pattern and going to find my own fabric to personalize it, but this was on clearance ($27!) and has cute fabric. I think that it will be a nice gift for someone, I don’t need it for myself but I couldn’t pass it up. The kit will actually be a Christmas gift from A to me. I also bought my first quilt block of the month…I bought the first two blocks and am eager to see hoe that turns out. I am really excited about all this quilting. I just need to get some more free time! My friend will start taking R more regularly, so I might just get the chance to do so!
Now that R is down for the night I am going to get stitching!

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