Monday, July 13, 2009

Flat FO #1

I was at the Lake all of last week. Eight and a half days, to be precise. I didn’t knit a single stitch the whole time I was there.

So what did I do craft-wise while I was up there? I put two of my longest-standing almost-finished-objects to rest.

First, my Picnic Plaid.

I first saw this quilt as a class sample made by Mary Ellen Sakai at Bearly Stitchin, somewhere in the neighborhood of 2004 or 2005. I don’t remember.

I do remember that I first made this quilt as a gift for my best friend, Bill. He tells me that his quilt has a label on the back that says “2005” on it. People, this is why we put labels on quilts!

This was a very quick top to complete and I loved the results when I made it for Bill. On his quilt, I put puppy paw prints all around the border and on all of the stripes. When I visited his house on my trip from LA to Pittsburgh in 2007, I spied his quilt. It was filthy. He was afraid to wash it. I straightened him out, but was happy it was obviously well-loved and much-used!

Anyhoo, shortly after finishing Bill's masterpiece, I decided I needed to make this quilt again, for myself! I used brighter hues of the same colors and quilted spirals in the borders and stippled the plaid stripes in like-colored thread.


So I did! I probably started it some time in early 2006. That’s pre-blog, so I don’t know exactly when I started it. Just a guess. I did decide to leave the white background squares unquilted. Not sure if I’m still in love with that decision, but they’re small enough (about 4”) that they should be fine.


I used Printed Treasures sew-in fabric for the label. Purchased at the J-store. With a coupon. I will certainly purchase again. I doodled up the “artwork” for the label in InDesign on my computer, then printed it out. I think it was a great solution, although it’s obviously a very densely-woven fabric, so it was kind of tough to sew through by hand. Oh, and this was my first label-sewing adventure in quite a while, so I didn’t quite line it up right. It’s a little puffy.


So this was a generally enjoyable project. It took forever to get the binding hand-sewn down, but I’ve been quilting less and less since I moved (I really want to change that!!!), so it kind of makes sense.


But dammit, when I edited this photo, I noticed an unquilted red square. One down from the top on the right. I’ll fix that. Someday.

8 comments:

Jenn said...

Nice, very bright and cheery! At least you're being crafty, I've been playing "Professor Layton and the Curious Village" on my Nintendo DS pretty much non-stop.

Bezzie said...

I really like the multicolored binding!!

Margy said...

It is always nice nice to get those projects done - very colorful and fun!

Sarah said...

The quilted details are absolutely gorgeous! Do you do those all freehand, or can you do them on the machine? Either way, I'm super impressed.

Donna Lee said...

I love this. I love the colors and the little polka dots on the white squares. What a fabulous quilt. Well done.

Zonda said...

Love the weaving look of this! Hehe..what red square..I'd leave it ;)

Jen said...

I love the spiral quilting!

Cyndi Kinney said...

I'm fairly new to quilting....but I LOVE this quilt!!! So far, I've just done my quilting by hand. I WISH I could afford a quilting machine, but I don't see that in my near future. Did you do the spiraling by hand or on a machine?