Thursday, March 6, 2008

Transformation Complete!

OK...so....I'm in such a good mood today, how about a little gratitude. Sometimes I just have to put into words some of the blessings in my life.
1. Multiple days of sunshine (not warm yet, but sun beaming in the windows warms the soul and brightens my day!)
2. Lost two more pounds on my weigh in day. (Thanks to my workout partner. She is an inspiration and never gives me a break....I love her for that!)
3. Carrots. (You know they are actually starting to taste like a sweet treat to me. Who'd have thought.)
4. People like Greg Mortenson. He works in Pakistan and Afghanistan helping to start and keep schools going to educate children (especially girls). His book, Three Cups of Tea, is a great read.
5. Husbands who actually encourage you to buy fabric. Enough said.
The list could go on and on, but that is where my head is today!

Haven't had loads of time for sewing or blogging this week, but I did manage to turn those crazy pieced vintage stripes into a quilt top. So much went into this little quilt. Since my husband found the bag of fabric, I kept thinking of him as I thought about how to turn these into a quilt. He would NEVER wear a shirt made from any of these fabrics. We all tease him about his color choices. For him, an ecru shirt is a bright and he only wears it when all of the white and blue shirts are dirty or unironed. His limited, conservative palette led to the fabric choices. I chose the colors of the shirts in his closet. (blue, white, yellow) You know, those traditional, dare I say boring, oxford shirt colors. I tried a few different ideas before I came up with this.Lots of cutting and playing on the design wall and I have to admit a few starts and stops and sessions with the seam ripper. But you know, I'm learning to embrace the process. It wasn't frustrating...it was freeing. The hardest part was cutting up the crazy pieced blocks. I fudged a bit and ended up with 9 rectangles and went from there. Now I wish there would have been more of those little striped squares. When I first opened the bag...sad to say I was going to toss the striped ones. Shame on me, but it's the truth!
Now that it's done...it kind of reminds me of stained glass windows. That surely is not where I started. I'm excited to put together a back and think about how to quilt it. Any ideas?

5 comments:

bettyninja said...

I am in love with the way you worked those blocks into this great quilt top. Very stellar idea to make them into rectangles. And I love that they are slightly askew. Very clean, very modern, love em.

Leanne said...

You are very clever I love the way you have place the coloured centres so they aren't centred if you get what I mean.

Jen said...

Like I said over on flickr...love the blocks and love how you put them together.

Ideas on quilting? Ug...I am not good at creative quilting ideas. I've only ever "stitched in the ditch" and I think this quilt deserves more than that.

Laurie said...

LOVE THESE!!! What great idea! Keep it up! Improvising is a good thing!
Laurie

dutchcomfort said...

The quilt is great! The pieces blocks are fabulous! Quilting, a modern kind of quilting. Straight lines around the pieced blocks, 1 inch apart??