Two members of one of my guilds has given us a challenge for the summer make quilts for our charities. They provided a good bit of the fabric and we come up with the rest. I resisted at first, there is always so much quilting to be accomplished for the totes that I just wasn’t sure I’d have time. While I was at a meeting last week with my quilt show co-chair she mentioned the challenge again and said that there was one fabric that just hadn’t been taken. I looked and couldn’t resist. So I brought home yards of fabric to be made into at least two quilts and need to have them completed by our September meeting. (Did I mention this is about 2 weeks away?) The fabric that wasn’t taken by anyone has stripes, and not just any stripes floral stripes and long quarter inch black stripes. Black is one of my colors, I really like how it allows other colors to sing and pop. I cut the fabric into 15″ squares, cut those on the diagonal, mixed and matched until I had each grouping sorted correctly and then put them back together again. Each block is different! I never cease to be amazed at how fabric can appear to change and how with a little imagination we quilters can make something work, even when it doesn’t particularly appeal to our sensibilities. The second fabric is black with pink roses and the third is a floral as well with green and purple smudges all over (this description sounds awful but it’s really a sweet fabric.)
I cut some of the rose fabric into 10″ squares and wanted to frame the fabric on two sides using the attic squares technique and a strip of the striped floral fabric and see what happens. I used Eleanor Burns technique for getting that perfect mitered corner and all my lines matched up, can I just tell you what a sigh of relief escaped my lips? I’m often concerned that I’ll mess up these techniques and am so happy when it works! It will be an interesting moment to see how these quilts come out with the different blocks and patterns that are presenting as I stitch a long.
As a quilter I like to design as I go. For me this adds a sense of spontaneity in my quilts that works for me. I get to be surprised, like opening an unexpected gift. I have planned a lot of my quilts as well and have enjoyed the process and the results as well.
Happy Quilting!
Teri
