So if you are a regular reader here, you know my policy on giving hand made items as gifts. I won't go on about it again (for long), but basically the upshot is making stuff is a ton of work, often costs a lot of money too (surprise, surprise), so MAKE SURE the intended recipient wants it, because if they don't you have no one but yourself to blame for your own hurt feelings when your 18 year old nephew is less than enthusiastic about the afghan you crocheted for him. Even if it was in his favourite colour, even if the yarn was really, really expensive, even if you raised that sheep from a lamb, sheared it yourself, and dyed the resulting handspun yarn with your own blood sweat and tears, if he doesn't want a crocheted afghan, he won't be happy about recieveing it and everybody (including you) will be bummed. Money and time wasted. My advice is to ask someone if they would like a hand made gift, and then, only if you get an enthusiastic "yes" from them, solicit their opinion about colour/style/materials and then proceede with the fun of making.
Anyhow, my point is, I'm making a friend of mine a quilt as a wedding present. She's a lovely, crafty creative sort herself (you can find her beautiful printed and embroidered clothing here) and she seemed genuinely excited at the prospect of a hand made quilt. I asked her if she had colour/fabric/pattern preferences and she immediately mailed me an amazing package of lovely fabrics that she'd found/saved along the way, along with a detailed, handwritten note about the enclosed fabric. I cannot tell you how happy that made me. Even when you have someone who says "yes, I'd love it if you made me a quilt!" it can be rough going when they say, "oh, I dunno, I really like purple. Just make it pretty and I'm sure I'll like it." Yikes. That's when you are all like "yo, there are a LOT of different purples out there. Have you ever been to a fabric store? 'I like purple' does not narrow it down much."
Sylwia (the bride to be) sent me this fantastic package, and included her favourite material of all time, of which she only had a small scrap left. Here is how she described it:
So obviously, I'm gonna use that fabric. But I needed more of it. So I did a little shopping and found something that, while not an exact match, was similar is spirit and colour.
That's her scrap on the right, and my purchase on the left.
Then I bought a bunch more fabrics to go with it.
And I have all of her lovely little remnants and treasures that she mailed me, so I found a pattern (from this book, good ole' Kaffe), conferred with her on it, got the go ahead, and started cutting and laying it out. And lookit what we came up with.
Yeah, I'm pretty happy with this. Very pleasing pattern and lots of fun fabrics. She had these lovely little pre-strip-pieced swatches of vintagey looking fabric, but they'd been sewn with a serger, and I have no idea where she got them, but I cut them on the bias to make those cute little stripe-y pieces, which I think make the quilt even more dynamic.
Also another thing I am stoked about: finally putting up my own design wall.
Which was really as easy as pinning an old flannel sheet to the wall with thumb tacks. If you are unfamiliar with this concept the flannel sheet acts like a giant felt-board, and the magic of static electricity keeps your cut-out pieces stuck to the flannel, neat as can be. I don't know why I didn't do this before. Its genius. They even sell felt with a grid printed on it so you can be all level and accurate about the whole process. Actually, I do know why I didn't do this before, because my studio was too damned messy. But recent guests in my guest room (as the studio is also known) have forced me to clean it up (thanks to my lovely Mother in Law, and also my bestie Sara, who both stayed in that room in the last half-year) as you cannot have guests sleeping atop random piles of fabric and ephemera. Anyhow, since I actually had access to a bare wall, I pinned up that sheet and voila, best quilting aid ever!
So I need to finish this soon, as her wedding draws near. I'll be posting about the progress here so you can see how it is going.
Oh, and you might be surprised that there is not long-winded, sentimental post about the first day of school being tomorrow, because the Little Dude does not actually start school until Wednesday this week. But don't worry, I'll be all maudlin and wordy in Thursday morning for sure.....