Purple and Blue

Here's my first finished piece in however long. I don't really have a name for it, other than Purple and Blue. It's officially Quilt #57 (although it's probably about the 70th quilt I've made. Long story). It measures 69" x 90". And it looks pretty flat & dull here -- my wife ran off for the week with the good camera.



The "inspiration," such as it was, was an attempt to clear out some space in my drawers of blues and purples. Anything scrappy that was longish and narrowish got cut into two-inch strips. I sewed those strips together pretty randomly end-to-end to good a big heap of 100" strips. Here they are hanging on a bamboo pole in the quilt room.



Once I had enough strips, I just laid them out in the hall, making sure that no two pieces of the same fabric were too close to each other, and that none of the join seams in the strips lined up too closely.



After that, it was just a matter of sewing the thing together. It's backed with three pieces of cheap blue and grey flannel sewn together, and batted with a scrap bedspread I found for a pittance at a thrift store. The quilting just follows the vertical grain, with two lines about 1/4 inch from the edge of each strip. It is heavy, and cozy, and is probably the best-looking quilt per hour of time invested I've ever made.

He Lives...

I've been sneaking in a little quilting...

This Blog is Under Wraps

State of the Craft is currently inactive. I am still quilting, but at a fairly slow pace for the time being, and I am somewhat out of touch with the wider quilting community.

I will likely feel like writing about quilts and quilting again some time in the future. In the meantime, if you feel like following my various adventures -- including, possibly, quilting -- I publish pretty much daily at The Life & Times of Michael5000.

SQ11: Finished

You saw the face of this one last year, but here it is completed. It's made from salvage denim, backed with green cotton material that was probably curtains in its past life, and batted with an old poly blanket. It is nothing if not warm.

The quilting is pretty visible here, and simply followed the -- what's the word I'm looking for? -- the grain of the corduroy. I'll point out, too, that the photograph makes it look yellower than it really is, which makes it look a little dirty, which it isn't. UPDATE: I got a better photograph, so the colors aren't all yellowed out now. The blue and gray is actually pretty sharp in person. If I do say so myself.

Quilting the Jennifer Challenge

I did virtually no quilting in September and the bulk of October, mostly because I was doing other interesting and worthwhile things instead. Started edging back up to speed this week by quilting the Jennifer Challenge. I decided on the quilting pattern rather spur-of-the-moment, and I'm making all of those curves with a walking foot. Seems to be working....

The Jennifer Challenge

In the last post I mentioned the "Jennifer Challenge," which my friend Jennifer seems to think of as the "Michael Challenge," where we both bought six fabrics about a year ago and did the obvious thing. And now both of us have finished the faces, and have finally revealed to each other what we've been working on all this time. I think you will agree with us that they are, as Jen put it, "freakishly similar."

Here's one:

And here's the other, not yet quilted:

Are we peas in a pod, or what?

The 09-10 PreSeason List

Well, it's August, and right on schedule I'm starting to get interested in quilting again. I even did a little piecing last night. That means it's time for the list that I always make this time of year, my priorities for the coming quilt season. It's a long list, but then you probably understand that. There are always so many more quilt ideas than there is time or energy to make actual quilts.

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First Priority

Top priorities to finish this year. It would be nice to get ALL of these done.

Devil's Claw -- This is one I've talked about a lot in the last few years. The face is complete, and it's been pinned, so it just needs quilting and binding. "Just."

Jennifer Challenge -- Me and my friend Jennifer both bought a set of fabrics, and she is currently putting the hanging sleeves on the quilt she made with hers. I started cutting and piecing mine last night. I need to catch up, or Jennifer will hurt me.

Mondrian I -- My awesome (if I do say so myself) reproduction of a Mondrian painting in scrap corduroy. The face is finished, so it needs a back, some batting, and some quilting.

Symbol -- Another one I've talked about a lot here. The face background is complete. I need to select a fabric for the symbol and finish the face.

StormQuilts -- I have four of these on the First Priority list, but I won't belabor the details.


Second Priority

Second Priority quilts would be awfully nice to finish this year, but hey, I'm realistic. Hopefully, I'll make some solid progress on these, at least.

Mondrian II -- Already have it picked out!

A Couple of Child Blankets -- For some children of my acquaintance. If I was a good person, these would be First Priority.

Labyrinth II -- Most of the cutting is done for this sequel. I started the assembly, but ran into problems. I need to do some thinking and figure out how to get it going forward again.

Four Seasons -- I thought this was the world's oldest UFO, but I recently learned about an even older one. But it's MY oldest UFO.

StormQuilts -- I have three more of these on the Second Priority List

Third Priority

If I blast through the above and have time left over -- an unlikely prospect at best -- I might take on one of these. Or, I might putter with one from time to time with the idea of having it ready for serious attention next year.

The Legacy Quilt -- One I've talked about, but haven't done much with.

Labyrinth III -- I haven't even designed this one yet. I just like the idea of doing more Labyrinths.

A Project I'm not ready to tell you about.

Another Project I'm not ready to tell you about.

However many additional StormQuilts would get me to the ultimate goal of twenty.

Fourth Priority

Fourth Priority is a holding pen for ideas I hope to work on sometimein the future. For now, I'll just give you the working titles:

The Sarah Horowitz inspired light on light-light design

Requilting my own baby quilt

Oregon Map II

Yet Another Project I'm not ready to tell you about.

And Another One.

A wall hanging using my mom's Silhouette technique.

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There you have it! More quilting than I could possibly accomplish! Let's see how far I get!

What are YOUR quilt goals for the coming fall and winter?