14 months later ... a finished quilt!

Over a year ago, I posted several blog posts expressing my excitement to make this clothesline quilt from Oh, Fransson. I searched high and low for vintage linens in thrift and antique shops, even online.

Then I got started. Then it quickly stalled. I don't know why. I think part of it was that cutting up old sheets and pillowcases is not as easy as cutting crisp, smooth fabric off of a bolt. So I had a bit of a hard time.

Then I found that sewing old fabrics together accurately wasn't as easy as sewing new fabrics together accurately. Some were really worn, some were crisp.

Well, I finally finished it! And I do love it, even if it's not perfect.





It's interesting how the texture comes out so much more when you don't use the flash. But you also can't see the fabrics as well, so I did photos each way.





The back is nine different vintage fabrics -- I like the orange ones the best





I'm so glad to have the project completed. It's been sitting around my sewing room cluttering everything up for over a year. Now I have a pretty quilt instead of a mess!

Nine Pillowcase Quilt

AKA Clothesline Quilt from Oh, Fransson.



Remember this project? Probably not, because as gung-ho as I was about it in March, once I finally got started on it, it turned out to be tons of work. I have made progress, but I often feel overwhelmed by it.

Part of the problem is that I'm not making it according to the pattern. I want it to fit a queen sized bed, so I'm sort of winging it.

Another problem is that my squares are sort of wonky. I figure this is for many reasons:

1. My cutting
2. My sewing
3. My pressing
4. Most of all, the fact that these are old sheets and some are very worn, and all have different textures. Some are thick and crisp, some are soft and worn.

I'm just going with it. It's OK if it's not perfect, and I know that once it's quilted, many of the imperfections will be unnoticeable.


And, just for fun, my mom pulled out my first sewing project, which I have no recollection of. I didn't "really" start sewing until six years ago.




It's got a zipper on back to insert a pillow, though I'm sure I didn't sew that zipper in.

Vintage sheet quilt

I have had the Nine Pillowcase Quilt (aka the Clothesline Quilt) on my mind since February. I am finally making some progress. I have a few small blocks done. I love the vintage sheets. I'm really looking forward to the finished product.

Lots of things started, nothing finished

Outta here

I'm getting ready for vacation. Today's my last day of work until Aug. 9! We're just going on a quick jaunt for our 4th wedding anniversary, which is tomorrow. Then I have lots of time off just hanging around the house, which I LOVE.

Favorite Things

One of the patterns I've been drooling over is the Uptown Coat pattern by Favorite Things. I finally bought it, then anguished over the fabric. I saw this Porcelina fabric in an e-mail newsletter from Fat Quarter Shop, and despite looking around, I kept coming back to it. The fabric on the left is the main jacket fabric, and the other two form the chest area. It's like the turquoise coat on the pattern below.






Vintage sheets quilt

Also, I've finally gotten moving on my Clothesline Quilt, AKA the Nine Pillowcase Quilt. It's the vintage sheets quilt that I was so excited for, and when the pattern finally was posted, I realized that the cutting was sort of hard. I did use a lot of pillowcases, but I also used a few sheets, and boy were they a pain to cut with a rotary blade.



Oh, Fransson's version can be found here. She's the one who had the tutorial.

My main issue is that I want this to be a quilt for a queen size bed, so that means I need to add extra blocks. But that's going to ruin the 9-9-9 symmetry of the quilt. There are 9 tiny squares in the small blocks, then 9 small blocks in a big block, then 9 big blocks make up the quilt. If I add blocks, it messes that up, but I guess I'll live with it, because I want it to fit a bed and I've already cut the strips. I guess I could have made them bigger in the first place, but they would have been been a lot bigger.

Embroidery

I've been having fun embroidering. One of my projects will likely be one of the gifts for my five recipients from this post. So I won't show it until they get it, so it will be a surprise.

But I have so many ideas going. One thing I want to do is take this image and embroider it on a piece of tan fabric and make a handbag for myself.




Now I just need to buckle down and finish some things. Forget about the socks I've been working on for months. I'm making no progress at all. And hell if I'm going to take my knitting on the plane this time.

My first estate sale

I went to an estate sale in Corrales today. I was eating my breakfast and thumbing through the paper when I saw "estate sale" in the classifieds. I had been thinking of going to one for a while, but always forgot to. It's my day off, so I decided to check it out. Corrales is a rural village just minutes away from my home.

I felt a little bad picking over the belongings of some old widow who is now in a nursing home. I found a few pillowcases, some creepy cats and some lace other notions.

Off on a tangent, remember the Nine Pillowcase Quilt on Oh, Fransson's blog that I have been dying to make for months? Well she finally posted the tutorial (now called the Clothesline Quilt). It was supposed to be ready in March, and as I patiently (or not) waited for months, I collected my vintage linens. Today I went to select my nine fabrics and realized how overboard I went on the vintage linens purchasing. Maybe I should make a 20 Pillowcase Quilt.

Here are the two I added today:



I also found some pieces of lace and ribbon, and tons of snaps and hooks and eye, even some hand sewing needles.



I spotted these antique cats, which in hindsight are a bit scary looking. What's with the eyeglasses? They need cleaning, but I'm not sure how, what with the fur glued on them.



They are like these cats that I got from my grandmother-in-law when she died.



Finally, for the real and not creepy cats in my life, I got this box to carry my stuff in:



OK, so once I put the stuff in the box, I went up to the man and asked how much it would cost. He said, "Well, I'll look at it and make an offer. These cats are collectibles."

Now I'm thinking he's going to charge a lot. And I only have $16 in cash with me, but I was thinking that would be fair for the lot of stuff, since it does go to feed the old lady in the nursing home, after all.

Then he says, "For the whole box of stuff, $5."

Uh, OK. And off I ran, feeling like a thief.