Now that the holidays are over, I can get back to making quilts for grandies. I’ve had a pretty hard rule of not making the quilts for special occasions. That is because I do not like deadlines. At all. I’ve done my share of meeting deadlines. Quilting is supposed to be relaxing and enjoyable. The stress of meeting a birthday or graduation or wedding date is not for me.
The blocks I started at retreat. Quickly, I fell in love with the design possibilities! The quilt is about 35″ square in the picture at right.
Lately, I’ve been making quilts for the grandchildren as I get to them. But that got me into warm water (as opposed to hot water) because I put off making quilts for the youngest set. A gentle reminder put me into gear. And I am now working on the last of that set of grandies. They are six and seven years old, so obviously I needed a little nudge. Find Emile’s quilt here and Ryder’s quilt here.
This last quilt began with a packet of 5″ squares. I picked up two intending to make Amelia’s quilt as simple and fast as possible. But I found myself at retreat when I started and something–I know not what–moved me to cut the squares diagonally and add a red strip in. Ahh, it makes for a sweet little block. Oh, but, the extra sewing added only a small increment to the size of the block. So now, weeks later (the holidays ate into my sewing time) I have 170 or so blocks but a top that measures only 60″ X 70″. It needs to be much larger. But don’t you know it? I’ve run out of the red fabric for the center strip
At the beginning of January, the quilt had grown to about 50″ square. More blocks needed
It’s been fun playing with the blocks and creating designs. I wanted a very modern improv vibe. After discovering what I could do with the darks and lights, I began taking advantage of them to make the mazes move in various directions rather than just squares.
Arranging and rearranging. This playing takes lots of time!
In the end, when I discovered a design I liked, I pinned everything in place. Of course, I was hopeful that I wouldn’t mix them up as I removed each row. Some quilting straight pins with numbers were helpful in keeping things in order. And today, the top is as far as I can get it until I find suitable fabric to add borders. Thus far, I have not found more of the red Boho Moda fabric. I’ll try a few more shops or perhaps just dig through my stash in a day or so.
All done for now. Some of those corners look pretty good! Amelia is excited to “find my way out of the maze!”
It has taken lots of photos and re-arranging. Amelia came in one day and moved a few blocks around, but I certainly could not remember which ones they were! At some point, I gave up creating a design and began putting blocks on the wall all willy-nilly. Only to have them fall off while I slept. Usually dragging a few along for the ride. If only they would multiply at night. I needed rabbit blocks but had popcorn blocks.
