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Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Plain Spoken quilt top finished!

Plain Spoken quilt top
The piecing for my first real quilt is all done! I spread the top out on the bed, and here's what it looks like. I'm so pleased with how it looks—my aging camera doesn't do justice to the different shades (seven greys, six reds, and an orange), but I'm glad I didn't give in to deceptive lighting and leave out some of them.

My mother (a very accomplished quilter) assured me while I was working that everything didn't have to be perfect, and there are plenty of wonky seams on the back, to be sure. But she was right: even without perfect quarter-inch seams, there's a real geometric look to the quilt. It reminds me a bit of the sides of skyscrapers, which might provide some good quilting ideas.

The next step is sending it off to the wonderful aforementioned mother so she can quilt it with her free-motion machine (or is it a long-arm machine? I thought they were the same thing, but apparently not, and I can never remember which is which). She's already got what's technically my first quilt, but it was a super easy design that I'm not really counting. So I'm taking advantage of the cheap sweatshop labor, but what are mothers for? No, of course I don't mean that—my apartment wouldn't be half as lovely without the time and talents of both my parents.

In the meantime, I have my living room floor back! And I can clear the sewing machine and fabric scraps off my kitchen table! That all sounds rather appealing right now, but this quilting thing (as I've been warned) is addictive, and I'm sure the next project isn't far off. The Other already thinks he's getting a quilt next, but greedy-guts here might want another one all for himself first.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Porkpie,
Perhaps one should stop stuffing oneself with one's own quilts....save something for the rest of the world, e.g.., me.
the Other

Anonymous said...

Oh, wow! Wow! It's awesome. Positively perfect. I want you to make me one now. No, really. I like oranges, olive greens . . .

Alternatively, if I made my own, could I pay your mom to finish it for me? :)

Anonymous said...

Dear Feed Dog,
Help! You seem to be a man with answers & taste. I recently moved to a new apartment & have found some wonderful curtains from the 50s, but don't know how to hang them. Unfortunately my apartment comes with mandatory vertical blinds. What kind of curtain rod should I install and how should I fix it so that I can cover a sliding glass door with curtain panels that are perhaps each 2 feet or less in width.
--your in diy humility

Unknown said...

Dear anonymous number 2,

Somehow I suspect you've solved your curtain woes, and I'm pleased you've hidden your vertical blinds from view. They are, after all, one of the cardinal sins of décor. On the other hand, I've seen old computer punch cards used to replace the blinds, which is super--if you've got a million punch cards lying about.