fatquarterly   quilters in Christ

Wellllllllllllllll, after a couple of nine patch quilts, I decided I wanted to try something new so I consulted this book about Nickel Quilts, by Pat Speth. There were some very cool looking quilts with interesting dimensional geometric designs. I love geometry, along with color, so I picked out one to try. The one called Rocky Road to Dublin looked really fun, and I liked its almost 3-D look. The book said is was in the “easy” category, so I got to work trying it. They lied to me. IT WAS NOT EASY. I guess according to them it might of been easy, but I was still a rookie. At present I am doing another Nickel quilt that is considered “beginner” which is even challenging.

I believe this is when I first began listening to Celtic music while I quilted. I figured it would get me in the mood so to speak, and I haven’t stopped since then. I really love Celtic music anyway, and it seems to go right along with quilting for me.

So we began a journey on the rocky road to Dublin, quilting away. When I say we, I mean the Lord and I. This quilt was quite challenging as I mentioned, but it did get easier as I went along. By the way, this quilt was being made for two Christian friends of ours who were actually going to Dublin soon, so that went right along with environmental happenings. These two live with my wife and I. I did have to begin collecting more light/whitish materials, as well as an assortment of darks for this type of quilt. This is what gives the nickel quilts their dimensional look–that is the arrangement of patterns using lights and darks. I also needed a lot of blues and greens because my friends really like these colors. I really like how this quilt turned out! It is awesome! Much better than I had anticipated.

There was a lot of messing around making the shapes for this quilt. There were lots of dark triangles, hooked to larger colorful triangles, and lots light and dark, colorful 4 patches. I also had to make these colorful looking butterflyish pieces that came out in the middle of some of the 4 patches. And though it was frustrating and slightly annoying doing this, I really like how it turned out. I did learn a lot of new techniques, and tricks along the road. Chain stitching came in very handy, where you do a bunch of things in a row without cutting the thread on the machine and starting anew.

One big challenge which I got better at, was the lining up of things just right. Points had to meet other points, and blocks had to line up with other blocks, and seams with seams. There was a lot of this kind of messing around, and I did it as professionally as a rookie could. Trimming things squarer seemed to help. In my quilting thus far, I’m more apt to accept close enough, rather in the name of perfection unstitching things and doing them over. I am also very intent on using all my scraps, even if I have to put a seam where usually it doesn’t go, in order to use up and not waste. Sometimes when you are running out of a certain cloth you almost have to make do.

So, I made another queen-sized quilt. I worked about 6 months on this, and my friends Tina and Rivers had gone and returned from Dublin etc. long since. We put a kind of royal red backing on this with a quality sheet, which I learned was not good for quilting, because of the tight threading. It makes it hard for the sewing machine needle to get through the material. But we did it. I went down to the Quilted Heart where I rent the long movable arm sewing machine they call Gigi. The quilting stitching was a lot of flower-like shapes, spirals in appropriate places, and I criss-crossed in a lot of the 4 patches. Did I tell you that I really like how this one turned out? Well, I did give it to my friends, but for present I still get to see it because it is on Tina’s bed, and she and her daughter live with us.

Well, for some reason I really like the nickel quilt stuff, and am having fun doing another one that is easier. It’s for my daughter, and has about another months-worth of work left to go. All along in my quilting, whenever I got bored, or needed a change of pace, I would make these colorful trees from my annoying triangular scraps I wound up with. The only problem is, you almost have to create more triangles to make these trees with their backgrounds, so…………….. I still have plenty of triangle scraps. So do not miss my next post. Because I made the coolist quilt with all my colorful trees. It was astounding, difficult, artistic, fun, and annoying to make, but it turned out most incredible! Stay tuned. A Rocky Road photo is coming up too. I must go for now.