Quilting - Part 1

quilts created in 2020 - my first year of quilting

 

Late last year I ordered myself a book called Quilts, published by Uppercase Magazine. (unfortunately I can't link to it online right now because the owner has closed her website until January). I saved it until Christmas Day and then I spent a few days reading all 384 pages of inspiration from quilters around the world. On December 31st, I designed my first quilt.

I used some fabric scraps I had sitting in storage for over 10 years and bought a few shirts and a sheet from The Daisy, a store that sells used items to raise funds for our hospital. I finished the quilt on January 16th. It wasn't perfect, but I loved the process.

Quilt 1 - Sara's Scraps - 48"x72"

 Someone else loved the quilt too.

Myrtle enjoys my new hobby

 

I started my second quilt in February...finished it on March 2nd...and called it Finch Fiesta. I had the finch fabric for 15 years and had never used it. I purchased more shirts and a tablecloth from the local second hand store. I purchased the orange fabric new. It's a bit smaller than my first quilt, but still a respectable lap size...40"x56". I machined quilted it, but added some hand stitched embellishments.

Quilt #2 - Finch Fiesta

I decided to try "improv quilting" for my third quilt...stitching fabric together without a pattern. I created this one for my 33 year old son and continued to use second hand shirts for the fabric. The big challenge for this one was the back side...I created three quilt backs before I was happy with it. The first once was a patchwork style with large fabric swatches. The second one was a sheet with a large vertical and horizontal line of patchwork. The third...and final...was a plain sheet. The front was so busy, I decided that the plain sheet worked best.

Quilt #3 - Cody's Quilt

Cody's cat enjoying the quilt

 

My fourth quilt was started on May 31st, finished on June 11th...just in time to send to a long time friend who was celebrating her 60th birthday on June 26th. I appliqued and hand embroidered 60 flowers and used...you guessed it...second hand shirts as the fabric source. The finished size is 48"x60".

Quilt #4 - Sixty Flowers for Louise

I loved the back of this one - a sheet of stylized hearts

Quilt 5 was my first "art quilt"...not made for anyone in particular but I had a series of mental health awareness quilts in my head that I felt the need to start working on.

Quilt #5 - Awakening - 44" x 64"

Awakening is a story about breaking free from depression. The side panels are all grey blocks, with a few yellows and oranges dotted in. The bold swath done the centre has been improv quilted in various shapes and angles....symbolic for breaking out of depression. This quilt will be part of my Trailings exhibit in 2021. Here is the back:

back of Awakening

quilting detail - sunburst

Quilting is a challenge on my sewing machine, which is a circa 1965 Singer. My choices are forward or backward. Anything but a straight line is a challenge, and it all must be done manually. Nothing like the fancy machines available these days that are computerized! So I was quite proud of the sunburst pattern I quilted into this quilt.

That's it for part one of my quilting adventure. My goal for next year is to post the details each time I complete a quilt.