Wednesday Waxing Poetic

I'd like to share some of my past quilting work, though I haven't much to share. Tonya asked if I quilt because I don't have any on my blog. Fair question. I do. I haven't done anything major in 5 years, though. I used to quilt a lot when I was younger, but it was always for utility. Translation: all of those quilts have long since been worn to threads. I have two large quilts still. They will go the way of all the others eventually. Loved to death I guess you'd say.

Please excuse these photos. I hung the large quilts over the rail of our second story deck for better lighting and I had to take shots between the gusts of wind.

I made this first one for me. It is double bed sized. I machine quilted it on the diagonal through every square. When I knew we were building a house and that I would have a sewing room, I insisted it be pink and this quilt was meant for the futon in there. Well, you saw pictures of my sewing room yesterday and it is no longer pink! Right now my dogs are enjoying this quilt on chilly nights.

This was meant to be used on my bed in my master bedroom in my new house. At that time the carpet was off white as were the walls and this quilt was the only color in the room. I drew this out block by block on graph paper with colored pencils to represent all of the various blue shades and I was able to calculate almost exactly how much fabric I would need. It is made of 1406 3" squares and is 120 x 120 inches because I wanted it to cover our king size mattress completely. I tied this quilt. No way I would even think of quilting it! That bedroom is now a very red-orange color called "Copper Penny" and we have since bought a white feather comforter. This quilt is now a picnic blanket large enough that our whole family sat on it last fourth of July when we went to the outdoor concert and fireworks show. In fact, there is a large purplish blotch on the back where my husband spilled his red wine. I had to take it to the cleaners because it is too monstrous to fit in my washer.

This is a wall quilt. I think maybe it was a Debbie Mumm design? I can't remember for sure. I actually really like it which is why I still have it. I originally made it for my living room when the walls were tan. Now they are green and it no longer matches. But now that Tonya has encouraged me to look at it again, I think I just might hang it in my bedroom!

I have two quilts in the works for Christmas. One is going to be made of simple squares with some sort of applique. The other will be wonky squares, I think. I have seen quite a few wonky squares quilts on the net lately and I really like them. I have fabric that I think will be great for fussy cutting for them. And I would really like to do some sort of tree skirt, if I have time (big if here). So, yes, I do quilt, though for some reason I've taken a break for quite a while. I think maybe I believed I had to justify it all and now that we are a little better off financially, I don't have to make quilts. But visiting all of the blogs on the net that I can each day has convinced me that this is something I want to do again. Maybe not exclusively because I really do want to start another art doll quilt after Christmas, and it may be awhile before I do anything really large again, but we'll see what I get the itch for!

Update: I linked here for my Blogger's Quilt Festival post and wanted to link back in case you are surfing the quilt links!