New Skill: Quilt Drawing…?
Please excuse the wrinkles. I didn’t have a chance to iron before taking pictures.
I have always wanted to make my Grandmother a quilt and after years of practice, this year I finally felt ready to tackle the challenge.
My Grandmother has made quilts for everyone in the family. As far as I know, she was the one who taught quilting and piecing to others in the family who currently sew. My Great Grandmother was a quilter (I used my Dad’s tumbling block quilt that she made for him on my bed in high school), but I never knew Great Grandma, so to me, Grandma has always felt like the corner stone quilter in the family.
Grandma has probably made a million quilts. She hands them out like Candy Canes at Christmas time. I have a lovely stack of them (and by stack, I mean they can usually be found stacked on top of one another, on my bed, with me laying beneath them because I’m cold).
Because Grandma has made every quilt known to man and has an abundance of quilt knowledge, I knew the quilt had to be something creative, special, and accurately produced. It had to be something that no one else would be able to make from a pattern. It had to be something she could pour over and find new details every time she looked. It had to be something difficult to make. It had to be something she wouldn’t have done or come up with herself. And finally, it had to be done quickly….Grandma is almost 92 years old!
I have been putting this quilt off for a few years because I wasn’t sure I could make it good enough, but I started getting itchy when she turned 91 and I knew it was either now or never.
Sorry for the continuing intro, but I really want you to understand that Grandma is a tough cookie. I knew everything would be scrutinized. I wanted to do a good job and make her proud. That being said, I know that perfect is the enemy of good, and I could have spend 10 years on this quilt and still felt like it was not good enough for me to send to her. So, I did what I could with the time that I had and tried to make her something
Grandma made us Busy Books when we were babies and she used a satin stitch around cut out pieces of fabric to make various designs. This is where I got the idea to use the satin stitch to lay all my pieces down. Then I could cut out any design and stick it right where I wanted it. It felt more like cutting out pieces of card stock and gluing them to paper than fabric piecing.
The only place I didn’t use the satin stitch was on the fence. I wanted it to look seamless, as though you could look straight through to the garden behind it, and I thought a satin stitch would take away from it. Also, I didn’t want to risk the fabric warping since the pieces were so small.
I added some texture by embroidering little bits here and there. I also went ahead and put little bits of free motion quilting in spots to give more subtle texture, but only when attaching the front to the batting. I started using this technique because quilting the 3 pieces together (front, batting, and backing) all at once has been challenging on my small machine that is not meant to be used for quilts.
This quilt was fun to make and I definitely would like to make something like this again, but a lot more detailed because I think it would be a great challenge.
Quirky Quilts 