Monday, June 20, 2016

The things we do for love

My oldest niece is having a Big Birthday this year.
When I saw her last, I asked, "Would you like a quilt?"
"Yes, please," she replied.
"Lap-sized or bed-sized?"
"A big one, please."

OK. So I asked her to send me a photo of her room, which she did -- a picture of an elegant room in plums & pale gray with silver accents -- it looked like something from a magazine!
Can I make a quilt that will be at home there!?!
Well, I will try.

I gathered a few plums & purples from my stash. I guess I am not a purple person, so some online & in-real-life shopping were necessary for a stack of 30-some prints & solids. Now for a pattern -- after much study, I settled on one out there these days on the interwebs: Wanta Fanta by blossomheartquilts.com. Basically, it is a kaleidoscope-ish block & a snowball block; in combination, they make a pretty, overall pattern.

I had been sewing & sewing & not seeing much progress -- that is, until I did see progress. The pattern isn't hard, just a bit fussy. Now that the design is emerging, I am getting excited. It's kind of elegant!

As a sort of palette cleanser to the elegance, I pulled out a stack of wacky blocks my Grandmother made. She gave them to me long ago when I first got seriously interested in quilt-making. She finished only 2 quilts -- a flower garden -- Mom & Dad's wedding gift, now mine, & a wedding ring that my cousin has. Both are beautiful & beautifully made. This stack of plaid-on-plaid blocks are beautifully made, but beautiful? Not so much. Grandma was a refined farm woman, but these blocks are not refined! I wish I had asked what prompted her to make them. Anyway, rather than calming their loudness with a solid, I decided to turn them up a little more with some calicoes.