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ree finished
I just realized that I never wrote about this quilt. I took this picture and posted it on flickr when I finished the top, but it never made it here:
Ree was never really planned. It just sort of happened one day when I was trying (unsuccessfully) to sort my thrifted sheet stash. These particular patterns just fell together and I thought they would go lovely with linen. And I think they really do…
As with the flutters quilt, it was sitting unfinished for a few months and I finally got to it in September. And then it sat until two weeks ago when I took these pictures. But I think the pictures do not do it justice. It looks and feels so soft and cozy in person. Something I just cannot see in these pics. The linen gives it that special feel and touch. Maybe the light was not the best. I am not sure.
Initially I thought I would free motion quilt this one all over, but then I changed my mind for two reasons. First – the linen and a few other fabrics were a bit stretchy and that would not be so fun to quilt (and I did not want to try starch for the first time). Second – I thought maybe too many quilting lines would make it busier? So I quilted only the outline of the pieces…
For the backing I used another thrifted sheet, this time a flannel. This one was brand new – otherwise I would not buy a second hand flannel – I’ve seen a few second hand used ones, and they were terrible. But this makes this side a little warmer and cozier. You can see the backing in the pic below on the lower right.
If I had a shabby chick kind of house this would fit perfectly.
flutters finished
It’s been almost a year since I started this quilt, almost 4 months since I finished it, and about 2 weeks since I took these photos. But it’s done and I like, like, like it.
It was made almost entirely out of thrifted sheets. The brown/yellow/blue and red stripes were cut from a striped fabric I had in my stash that matched the colors in the butterflies almost perfectly.
I must admit I was in a hurry to finish this quilt, so I ended up quilting only around the “frames”, even though I have recently started gravitating toward more densely quilted work. But I think that it turned out OK.
I didn’t only like the butterflies, I really liked the colors. I am thinking about making another quilt with the same color combo.
For some interest I added those little tiny (1/2 in) squares between the butterfly squares.
I backed it with another thrifted sheet, which also matched the colors – well except the blue. I love how that works with vintage sheets. I used the same sheet for binding. And I just noticed that the colored stripes on the binding are parallel. Not intentional. I love how that works sometimes too.
dash-dot
Finally finished. Actually, I finished it almost two weeks ago, then waited for some light to photograph it, and then forgot about it. I did however photograph the other two quilts that I finished in September! but that will wait for the next post…
So this one… made entirely from vintage sheets. Well, almost entirely. I think one of the orange solids was from a stash.
I really liked making this one. I though about this particular pattern ever since I saw a Vera scarf at a thrift store, months ago (and I did NOT buy it for whatever reason). It did not have the solid squares, it was all stripes, and all in one color – black I believe.
I only wished I had more stripes to work with. I did not want to repeat any – it was repeat all or none. To repeat all – the quilt would have been too big – well, too big for my machine anyway. I am still afraid of that, but one day…
Quilting was a little challenging. First I wanted to do free motion – I thought it would look nice against such graphic design. But it just would not work. My thread kept breaking. I could not adjust the tension… But I tried… And then ended up having to rip one full square of quilting… No fun.
I ended up doing straight line, but a spiral pattern, on a diagonal across 4 blocks. I am not sure if you can see it in the pics. I decided to do two different style of the spiral – one denser and the other less so. I wish I had only done one. I though there would be more of an effect – with different quilting lines. But not so much.
I used another thrifted striped sheet for the backing. As it usually works with these sheets, the colors match!
Overall I like it. A lot. I planned for the stripey squares to be a bit bigger, but then I had a problem with one of them – it had to be trimmed, so they all got trimmed a bit. That’s why I added a white border. It was not planned. And maybe I could have made the solid squares 1/2 in bigger? Less white? Maybe next time….
Top 100 tutorials of 2011
A great post at The Long Thread: Top 100 tutorials of 2011
Mug rug and a cup for a teacher
No triangles were cut for this one!
New quilt is coming along
Squares have been trimmed:
And arranged one way:
And then another:
Trimming wasn’t planned, but a few squares turned out smaller than the others. Reason? Well, this quilt is made of all repurposed vintage linens which are almost always a blend. In my experience, they do not always like ironing. I do have my iron set to a lower setting, but some squares get warped anyway.
Therefore, this quilt ended up smaller than designed, so I will probably add white border around it. I thought about adding a few more squares, but I have only one more color I have not used, and I did not want to repeat some – I think the way this quilt works is to either use all different colors or repeat all. But it will be a baby/throw size in the end and that’s OK.
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