You know, there is just nothing better than a cup of coffee that's at the perfect temperature. Weekends are the only time I get to savor my coffee and drink it out of a real cup. Every other day I'm charging out the door with a travel mug. Oh sure, it gets the job done, but it isn't the same.
So, as I am enjoying my lovely coffee in a real mug, I thought I'd start to document some of my finishes from this year. Above you'll see a quilt I finished in February or March for Mama Belfry. It doesn't have a name, but it's sort of the love child of a rail fence block and an hour glass block. I kind of made it up as I went along. I used a jelly roll and layer cake from April Cornell's Sunshine line. It's a throw/scant twin size. I stitched in the ditch along the diagonals.
Now, why I made the quilt. You see, 2009 has been the Year of Suck. No, I'm not going to go into it all, because this isn't a whiny post. This is a quilty post. The Year of Suck started out with Mama Belfry having to have surgery for a very yucky disease. Fortunately I was able to take off work and be there for it and her recovery. I wanted to make a quilt for her so she could have a warm hug whenever she needed it, and I could preserve a few scraps of my sanity doing something while I was 400 miles away. Sis and I chatted and decided while pink was traditional for quilt-making for this situation, that wasn't going to happen. With lots of snorting and eye-rolling, there was unanimous agreement that a pink quilt was unacceptable since almost everything at Mama Belfry's house is blue or green. In fact I think she's allergic to purple even.
Does anyone else out there memorize fabric lines? Maybe it's just me. Ok, so I knew this line would be perfect for her and set out to find it, which led me to eBay. Got the fabric in a timely fashion and got going. One of the prints is a fantastic, adorable blue/green paisley on a white background with a few dabs of yellow. One problem with remembering fabric lines is I'm always surprised when I can't find them...even several years after they were printed. I think fabric should be available for at least 5 years after its release. humph. Anyway, after much searching, (my google-fu is strong!) I located enough yardage to do the background. Finished up the quilt, delivered it to Mama Belfry, she loved it.
Are you ready for the punchline? OK a little background. Mama Belfry makes most of her own tablecloths especially for the porch table which is an odd shape. She usually uses a block with a diagonal seam so she can use half blocks to make the shape right. Then she quilts it to a piece of flannel or fleece so she doesn't have to use a pad underneath. Often she'll add a ruffle around the edge or something. Now these aren't quilts per se as there are usually some exposed seams.
So, I went to deliver the quilt and then we were sitting on the porch eating dinner and I realized the tablecloth used the same paisley fabric in the blocks as the backing on the quilt I made. /headslap. No wonder that fabric reminded me of her. Strange how our brains pick up on small details like that.
Anyhoo, that's my first finish for 2009.
No comments:
Post a Comment