the other project
Written on 2 January 2007 | Posted in art/craft,fabric & sewing,festivities | 13 Comments
Happy 2007, gentle readers! I hope you welcomed in 2007 in your own favourite way. We certainly did — with a big meal and a movie at my parents’ house. Tasty, quiet, low-key, perfect!
Here’s a little something that I’ve been keeping from you: my very first finished object of 2007! I had hoped it would be my last finished object of 2006, but it took about 16 hours too long to make the deadline. Astute readers might recall me dropping blatantly unsubtle hints about being consumed by a mystery project, and I know you’ve all been mighty puzzled about what it might be (hah!), so wonder no more! My parents celebrated their 35th anniversary on December 27th and this quilt was a gift to them from me & the mister, and my sister & her mister.
For any quilters who might be reading, here are some details:
- The pattern is “What a Bunch of Squares” from Denyse Schmidt’s excellent book.
- I machine-pieced the quilt top and did the quilting by hand.
- It took me precisely 30 days to complete, start to finish (and when I say start, I mean cutting-out-templates-start). When I wasn’t at work, or marking assignments, or doing other holiday-prep, I was working on the quilt. Activity definitely intensified once Christmas was over — I must have spent 16 hours a day on the couch during that final week, quilting and eating cookies and drinking tea. Not a bad way to spend the holidays!
- I used two different beiges and a variety of dark reds/burnt oranges. Here’s a picture of the fabric right out of the store.
- I followed every bit of instruction, down to the very last detail. I’m usually no good at that, I’m the sort of crafter who looks at patterns for “ideas”, then I ad lib as I go along. This time, the finished product was too important, and I acknowledged early on that I have too little quilting experience to make it up as I went, so I sucked that book clean of all instructions and diagrams. And it was worth it.
- All pictures, from start to finish, are in a photoset on Flickr.
More quilting thoughts & lessons learned coming soon. Welcome, aught-seven! So happy to see you.
Wow, Amanda, it’s FABULOUS!! What a beautiful gift!
2 January 2007 @ 15:18
What a beautiful work of art and love, Amanda!!! Can’t wait to see it!
2 January 2007 @ 16:23
Indeed a beautiful gift – we could not take it off the bed last night, Mandy, and kept admiring it from all angles – absolutely exquisite. Dad and I will always treasure it. Thank you again !
2 January 2007 @ 16:34
Wow! it’s gorgeous!
2 January 2007 @ 19:49
welcome aught-seven, indeed! happy new year, amanda
and i join the chorus – what a gorgeous lovely fantastic quilt!! so inspiring – 30 days?!?! beautiful.
3 January 2007 @ 12:34
Simply beautiful. The fruits of your labour paid off – it’s is a gorgeous piece of art and it will be treasured
3 January 2007 @ 13:50
Its so beautiful! Congraultations on a job really well done!
3 January 2007 @ 21:13
wow i’m not used to seeing such modern quilts – that one is awesome! do you sell your work?
3 January 2007 @ 11:22
WHOA!!! that’s all I can say – WHOA!!
3 January 2007 @ 23:19
That’s so insiptional! I started my first quilt 8 months ago and it’s still not even quilted!!! You’ve really inspired me to get back to it. Thank you! It’s gorgous and I love the colors so much. Lucky parents!
4 January 2007 @ 11:25
DOH! I meant inspirational and gorgeous!
4 January 2007 @ 11:26
I’m in love with your (parents’) quilt, Amanda. It’s just beautiful! And as somebody who is planning to take up quilting this year, I’m so inspired by the fact that it took you 30 days! Maybe in the summer I’ll devote myself to a project like this… Thanks for the inspiration, and happy new year to you!
4 January 2007 @ 18:12
Beautiful quilt. As part of de-lurker week and as a new quilter myself I thought I’d say ‘Hi’, and nice job. I came across your site via Jason Hammond’s and had been interested in your social software course from last semester (but couldn’t take it… grr).
30 days though… my goodness.
13 January 2007 @ 14:09