Wednesday 4 November 2009

Quilting... the story so far!


Every week I escape from my lickle cuties and spend a couple of hours absorbed in something completely different. Here are the squares I have made so far. From a distance they look alright, but they are full of mistakes! That's ok though, because this is a sampler quilt, which is the one you learn all the traditional patterns on. And of course we learn from our mistakes.... and I certainly make a lot of them!

P.S. These blocks are called Nine-Patch, Log Cabin and Pinwheel. Next up on the agenda is Fence Rail.

5 comments:

Maria said...

Personally, I like quilts with a little "character" to them -it looks like a person, not a machine, made them. i love quilts - something i want to learn in the future. I've always loved them - I don't know why... ever since I read a Berenstein Bears story about Mama going into business selling her quilts....(but I don't like manufactured ones you find in department stores - what's the point of a quilt like that?)

kee said...

Oh Maria! I quite agree with you. You would LOVE the place I go to for my quilting class. They are all so into their quilts. I feel like a bit of an imposter. I mean I think quilts are beautiful things, full of love and patience (especially hand-stitched ones). But until I started the classes, I hadn't really fully appreciated their loveliness. Maybe it's because there isn't as much of a tradition of quilts in this country as I'd imagine there is in the U.S., so I hadn't really thought about it.
Yesterday, Maeve, our teacher, showed us a quilt someone had bought her at an auction in America. No one knows who made it or where in America it came from originally, but they could tell from the fabrics that it was about 130 years old! It was all faded and very worn in places, but it was just beautiful. Imagine if it could talk and tell you what it had seen!

Maria said...

I should keep my eye out for a quilting class. Do you use a machine, or is it all hand-sew? Come to think of it, there probably is a relatively big quilting tradition in the States, probably something about frontier life. I don't know if you've heard of 'quilting bees' - something old-fashioned but people (esp Amish, etc) still do them - everyone sits around a quilt on a frame and stitches.

kee said...

I use a machine. Can't imagine how long it would take me if I was hand-sewing, even if I could, although hand-sewn quilts have a very special quality.

Maria said...

haha! i can't imagine trying to use a machine to quilt... it all seems so complicated