Monday, November 1, 2010

What's the Japanese word for ladder? - Blogger's Quilt Festival

Amy's Creative Side - Blogger's Quilt Festival
Welcome internet travelers! I hope you're enjoying this online quilt festival, organized by the fabulous Amy of Amy's Creative Side. I'm ridiculously new to the online quilting community, but I thought I'd introduce myself with a quilt I recently made for a friend of mine.



Blame it on my grandma. Not just this quilt, the whole thing really. The story of how she got me hooked on fabric is one for another time, but the story of this quilt starts with her, and with boredom.

We go up to Washington a lot for special occasions, but once my cousin's wedding festivities were over this past May, my mom and I decided to stay with my grandma for an extended visit and sent the boys home to get a bit of work done. Unfortunately, after a few days of staying at her home doing nothing, I got bored. Very bored.
  
My marker-ed plan
 So I started planning. I copied classic patterns out of my grandma's books, I confiscated her graph paper and some markers, and I planned. Mostly I thought about a very in-depth project for another time, but I also started thinking about a Jacob's Ladder for my former roommate Tiffany, who's getting ready to move to New York and pursue a theater career.

Oddly enough, without even trying to make it so, the (mostly Oriental) fabrics I ended up picking out for the quilt match my markered plan almost perfectly.  Weird.

I put the quilt together once I got back to Texas, first at home in between trips to Austin, and then in Austin, in between trips home. It's been sitting at the front of the house for a couple of months, waiting to have its picture taken, but it's just about time to send it off now.


I absolutely love these fabrics - a pale yellow ridiculously small check, a blue/green bamboo, a purple wood grain, and the fabulous red Oriental from which all the other colors were derived. Plus, I was able to find the same print in a different color wave for the back!


I hope y'all are enjoying the Blogger's Quilt Festival, and I hope you come back to visit some time in the future. Happy quilting!

PS> If any of you have helpful tips for getting color spots out of a quilt, I would dearly appreciate the advice. Despite the fact that I pre-washed all my fabrics, when I went to wash the completed quilt, hoping to get as much cat hair out of it as possible, I ended up with blue/green/purple spots on a fair portion of the quilt. Help please!

> NaBloPoMo Day 1 Complete :D

5 comments:

  1. I LOVE the fabrics too! A gorgeous quilt. Your friend will be very blessed when she gets it. Hugs to you, Joanne @ http://lavenderfieldsetc.blogspot.com/

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  2. You did a wonderful job with this Jacob's Ladder! I made one that I was never happy with because the contrast wasn't right - and when I look at yours I see what I was trying to achieve. I absolutely LOVE the fabric in this quilt! What is that fantastic floral? It's wonderful! As for your colours running, I find that Colour Catchers do a good job of capturing loose dye in the wash - I'm not sure if they would do anything for you after the dye has already transferred to other fabric, but it couldn't hurt to try it.

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  3. Your works are beautiful, i love your quilt:)

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  4. Your quilt is stunning. Jacob's Ladder is one of my favorite classic quilt blocks and the colors you chose and the arrangements you've created certainly work well! Wish I could help on the spots.

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  5. Gorgeous looking Jacobs Ladder.

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