Sunday, October 05, 2008

QS#3: Done

It's not exactly a finish to write home about, but it's the first finish of the 2008-09 Season, so here I am blogging about it.

This here is QuiltStorm #3. (Last seen here.)


QS#3, the fourth (!) StormQuilt to be completed, is batted with an old mattress pad and backed with some sort of stretchy, slightly slippery synthetic fabric. Using this unfamiliar material was what gave my quilting on this project such a, shall we say, singular aspect. I think what happened was that when I pinned the backing fabric out taut, its elasticity let me stretch it out quite a bit. Then, after the pinning, it snapped back to its smaller relaxed state. This means that the area of the face is quite a bit greater than the area of the back, which in turn means extreme puffiness on the quilt front.

It was difficult to get the quilting right under these circumstances -- and in fact, I didn't. It is without question the worst technical quilting I've ever done. But I learned a lot from dealing with the challenge, which is what QuiltStorm is all about. And, in a kind of sloppy, naive sort of way, I actually kind of like how it looks. I'm not crazy about how distorted the overall shape of the blanket is, but the crazy puffiness is kind of fun.

Other projects are coming right along! See ya soon!

6 comments:

Jennifer said...

My boy says, "I like the puffiness. It makes it look zigzaggy."

I do too, actually, though I see your point about it not being perhaps the most technically correct quilting from a traditional point of view. Plus, I love the red binding.

And I know it's a simple thing, but as many times as I see it, the difference between an unquilted face (your before picture) and the quilted & bound final product always hits me like magic.

Rebel said...

I actually really like it too. I mean, it's no labyrinth... but it wasn't supposed to be. I like the balance of the colors, and the quilting works just fine. I would happily curl up under this quilt.

Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson said...

Why don't you wash it and see if that doesn't even it out. I would dry it about 10 minutes in the dryer and then lay it on the floor or a table to finish drying. I really like the graphic quality of this one.

Libby said...

I like it a lot. It's like an optical illusion; I could look at it for hours.

jovaliquilts said...

I can't tell about the quilting from the photo, but the simple design is very appealing. It's a utility quilt, and really a nice one at that. What are your plans for your Quilt Storm quilts?

Heatherbee said...

I was disturbed by this quilt because the colors naggingly reminded me of something. I realized it was the colored pegs in the game "Mastermind." Then I felt better. I actually really like the color combination.