Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Blue Quilts


 I'll probably never make a quilt that isn't blue. Here's the first quilt I made last year:





Because this was my first quilt it took me freaking forever. One by one I learned the batrillion steps necessary to construct the thing. I burned myself with the iron and kept poking my fingertips with the quilting needle. As my bleeding fingers sewed along it occurred to me that this had to be the most pointless hobby in existence. I was cutting up pieces of fabric and then sewing those pieces of fabric together again at great cost and effort. For half the money and .001 of the time I could have gone to the store and bought a far more professionally constructed mass produced quilt and my fingerprints would be intact. Still, something about it is really Zen.


                                           (Not pictured: the bloodstains left by my maimed digits)

When I became nomadic I had to give up my sewing machine and find a project that I could do by hand. Thus began the ugliest applique project in the world. I bought my fabric in Amsterdam and made these blocks:

     I liked it at first but when I added a border it took on the appearance of a giant maxi-pad with wings. It's now buried in the bottom of my sewing bag, unfinished.
     
     Now I'm onto this ombre herringbone quilt which is predictably blue.






      I also recently learned how to do paper piecing which is highly addictive and perfect for my lifestyle as all it requires is fabric, paper, needle, thread, and scissors. Here are some pics of the hexagons I've been making which you sew together at the end like a giant fabric puzzle.



I love these little blue hexies, they remind me of fish scales


Then there's the pleasant task of deciding how to arrange the pieces.



     I'm excited about learning new techniques but I stand firm on my use of blue.