Posts Tagged ‘squares’

one quilt: february, march and december

Obviously, I am still behind with the one quilt project, but after a long afternoon in my studio I think I’m almost caught up! The square above is for Sarah (of the small object fame) and it is my absolute favorite. It’s not so big–probably 8 or 9 inches square–but damn those triangles shrink up when you sew them all together. She said she liked Yoshiko Jinzenji, so I picked one of the quilts from “Simple Quilts” and, well, copied it (hey, anyone know if you can still get this book anywhere?).

This little red and white number is for Amy (aka buraellen). She wanted a bit of woodland embroidery, so I copied this deer pattern from a vintage dishtowel I have. I’ve always like his flower crown. In the original there is whole wreath of flowers around his head, but I thought it looked a little much, so I left them out. This square came together quickly and painlessly.  Quilting (as a whole) looks deceptively easy, but it is very much not easy and I think I need some friendly old ladies to teach me.

This last one was a second attempt and a sad one at that, but the first one, oh you really don’t want to see that one. I was running very low on Chara‘s beautiful orange fabrics that second time out–hence all the sashing. I hope she likes it or if not maybe she’ll let me have a do-over.

And January is on my lap right now, waiting for me to finish the embroidery. It was supposed to be sashiko, but it’s looking a lot like arglye at the moment (dammit).

one quilt: september and october

I am sadly and just ridiculously behind with the one quilt project.  You think, “it’s one square a month, I can handle that.”  And then it becomes another thing to actively blow off while making other things or trying not to think about while camped in front of the tv. I am very good at procrastinating, but crap at coming up with excuses. Of course once you start you realize: 1. it’s not that hard and 2. it doesn’t take that much time at all and finally 3. why did I blow this off in the first place, I like it.  The pale yellow that Beth sent for October’s block did actually throw me off; it’s just not a color I ever choose. I tried bright purples and oranges with it, but it looked too football, too Minnesota Vikings for my taste.  So I went with blue and gray, which is what I always do and damn if pale yellow doesn’t just look good to me now. I used this for inspiration because it is just so awesome. And even though mine is not as awesome I’m pretty okay with how it turned out.

I knocked out a square for Leah as well, but this one was much less go with the flow and more rip and swear real loud. I saw this pattern on the internets, neglected to read the instructions, and had a hell of a time making everything at least almost match. I need a lot more practice when it comes to quilting and I hope Leah can forgive me, this is as good as it gets right now.  I think the picture makes it look a little worse than it is (or maybe it looks better in my head). The concept is good (though not mine) but triangles are hard.