Wednesday, February 06, 2008

A little side project...

Thank you so much for all of your wonderful birthday wishes! They really did make my birthday special, which was much welcomed since I ended up getting the plague a couple days before. Nice timing, right? Anyway, being sick didn't (for the most part) keep me from enjoying what turned into my birthday week. Because it fell on a Wednesday and on a class night at that (more on that below), it worked out best for B and I to go out for dinner Friday...which coincidently coincided with San Diego's Restaurant Week (YUM!). Nasus and K also whisked Nonnahs and I away for a little wine getaway last weekend, but I'll let one of them tell you the details. All in all, not a bad way to start out 33.

As for my class, I decided to take a quilting class offered by one of our local quilting shops. I realized last summer when I started making some simple skirts that I couldn't get enough of the fabrics out there. So many colors, so many themes, so many opportunities! But, I just wasn't drawn to garment making. I did, however, find that I got really excited whenever I saw these fabrics in a quilt or a pillow or a 'thing'. This is an interesting fact considering that I am almost completely opposite in the way I feel about knitting, where I almost always choose to knit a garment over a 'thing'.

I played around with making a throw this summer on vacation and while I could follow the pattern, I quickly realized that I was in desperate need of the techniques you learn from a class and a teacher. After quite a bit of research, I found a class that was exactly what I wanted. It takes me from picking out the fabric to a finished quilt in 6 weeks.

In the first class we selected our fabrics. Now, I'm a sucker for those cute and coordinated fabric packs that fabric shops sell, but I was determined to learn how to select fabrics outside of a designer's line or collection. So on the first day, I brought a piece of fabric (the cream fabric with the little pastel dots) with me to serve as my inspiration. I had originally purchased it online several months ago to go with another fabric for a skirt. But once it arrived and saw it in person, I knew the two would never work right together. It also isn't a fabric I was likely to wear, so I thought, here's a chance to actually use it!

Quilt Project - Just Can't Cut It

I knew I didn't want a pastel quilt, so I walked my fabric around the shop until I found something that would bring the pastels into a brighter color pallet...the pretty floral print on the left. With these as my anchors, I found 4 more fabrics that combined fun colors with various stylistic elements to mix it up a bit. The photo below will show you more or less how the fabrics will look in their relative sizes to each other in the final quilt.

Quilt Project - Fabric Choices

The floral will serve as my large blocks and outer border and the other 5 fabrics as my pieced blocks. I will also use more of the small pastel dots as my inner border and the stripe fabric as my binding around the outside. I think it will provide a nice contrast to the floral border, plus I love the way striped bindings look on quilts :-) .

I'll share some more photos as the quilt starts to come together! I'm really excited to see the blocks done and the top sewn up. Wish me luck!

7 comments:

knitzalot said...

Sounds like fun! Good luck!

Mouse said...

whoah.. that's some serious color! Good luck with the quilting.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful colors. I look forward to seeing your progress!

~RaenWa~ said...

Wonderful colors I would love to learn to sew someday I got a sewing machinr lsat yr from bf grnadmother when she passed away & I would really love to learn to make things like curtains I can't wait to see how your quilt comes along

Anonymous said...

Fun colors! Kinda like a "circus in a...quilt"! ;)

Anonymous said...

I'm actually way more excited about your quilting than I should be. This is not because I am hoping you'll make me a quilt some day. It's because I've got all the quilting fabric I bought with you when I was there, and I want to make a quilt. I'll learn from you if you post details (please!). Maybe I'll have to take a quilting class some day, but for now I'll learn by watching you.

Anonymous said...

So, it's a bit of cheat since I've seen more of it, but it looks awesome and I can't wait to see the finished product. I love striped bindings too.