Welcome to Throwback Thursday @ A Quarter Inch from the Edge! Into the dark and dusty quilty archives we go!
When I kicked off this link-up, I promised you the good, the bad, and the ugly. Personally, I think this one fits the bill for the latter! I finished it in 2004... about three years into my quilting obsession.
It was only part way through the creation of the blocks for this sampler that I learned about value. The original plan didn't have much white. In some blocks, you can hardly see the pattern at all.
And borders! A pieced on and a tone on tone white one. What was I thinking?
As little as I like this quilt, there are a few blocks that I really enjoy, such as this log cabin. I'd do this colour combo again in a heartbeat.. though minus the centre square fabric that a quilty friend so kindly pointed out to me "looks like sperm."
The quilt couldn't resist climbing up in this tree!
I used the quilting classic,
Quilts! Quilts!! Quilts!!! by Diana McClun and Laura Nownes, as my resource for this project. They released a juiced up, modernized version in 2013. From the sneak peaks I looked at on Amazon, it looks worth having a look at!
There are 18 different blocks in all that muddled blueness. Most are 12" with a couple 6" thrown in for variety. There's a Roman Square, a Fence Rail, some Log Cabins, Ocean Waves and at least 6 different types of star blocks.
The quilting is very simple. I just outlined the blocks, likely in the ditch. I definitely ignored the quilt it every 4 inches rule" on this one. And a solid backing... nowhere for my bad quilting to hide!
In another sort of throwback, this is how I used to photograph my quilts... usually hanging from the deck railing at our home in West Pennant. And I rarely took more than one pic!
Now it's your turn... time to link up your post about a project from
your quilty past and perhaps win a little something! This month's
giveaway is a 25$ gift certificate from
Fridays Off Fabric Shop. Apart from the fun fabric and
Le Club, I also love the great shipping rates: free on Canadian orders over 125$. And it's just 2$ for orders under 20$. Anything else is a flat rate of $5.95. I'd rather buy fabric than shipping any day!
How to win? There are three ways.
- Leave a comment on this post telling me about some of the things you did in early quilts that you'd never do again - like making blocks with virtually no contrast in value!
- Link-up a blog post featuring a quilt from your past. Don't forget
to link to A Quarter Inch from the Edge in your post or grab the
Throwback Thursday button from the sidebar.
- Leave me a comment telling me how you follow A Quarter Inch from the Edge.
If you are a no-reply blogger, please remember to leave a contact e-mail in your comment.
The giveaway is open to International participants until 11:59 pm Atlantic Time on Sunday, October 4th. Good luck! Giveaway has closed.
J
P.S. Hope to see you back on November 5th for Throwback Thursday {Volume 4}
The quilting is very simple. I just outlined the blocks, likely in the ditch. I definitely ignored the quilt it every 4 inches rule" on this one. And a solid backing... nowhere for my bad quilting to hide!
I'm a following and I'm off to set up my link!
ReplyDeleteI kinda like the overall blueness of your quilt and it is my idea of a sampler. I am sew not into wide sashing and those wide border finishes. Value is always a learning experience. I hope will never have to put another plain fabric for a backing again. You should have seen the quilting on my first sampler with the white backing and blue thread. It'll be coming up! ;^)
ReplyDeleteand oops, I follow through Blogger.
No more unbleached cotton for the back of a quilt. It was so boring.
ReplyDeleteI follow on Bloglovin and in person. If there was more white in this, it would be a great quilt. Lessons learned as we go along the journey of quilting.
ReplyDeleteI am a 'quilter without borders' kind of person, unless there's sashing. Great post! It's amazing how we grow and change!
ReplyDeleteI follow you from the side bar on my blog.
ReplyDeleteI follow you on Bloglovin
ReplyDeleteMaybe like Picasso you were just going through a blue period? Value and color has been a learn as you go thing for me. I have a few quilts that make me want to bang my head against the wall.
ReplyDeleteI follow you via Bloglovin'.
ReplyDeletesew4given AT aol DOT com
In a few early quilts. I used fabric cut off grain so the sides of the blocks were on the bias. Now that I am a long armer, I know how difficult this makes it for the quilter! The quilt just never looks straight and square.
ReplyDeletesew4given AT aol DOT com
Oh gosh, it is hard for me to dislike any quilt. Love the colors & it looks cuddly. Even though I know the rules for value, I still seem to try to break them now & again in some feeble attempt to perfect a low contrast quilt. The worst time to try this would be in a mystery QAL, yet that is exactly what I have done recently with Scrap Dance. Yikes, what was I thinking...
ReplyDeleteWhat wouldn't I do again? Hmmm... straight line quilt without a walking foot. I know you told us to be ready for the link up, but my brain has been mush. Must go find an old quilt!! :)
ReplyDeleteI follw via email:)
ReplyDeleteI'm done with borders unless it can't be avoided.
ReplyDeleteI follow on feedly
ReplyDeleteI follow you happily on BL.
ReplyDeleteI don't make a quilt from fabric I don't really like and don't but any just because it's on sale! This way I am more likely to get quilts I really do like!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI follow on feedly
ReplyDeleteWhen I was away at university my quilting budget was almost non-existent. And some of the poly-cottons were really pretty. So I mixed those blends with regular cottons, with predictable results. Once I got a job I purged all the poly-cottons so I wouldn't make that mistake again!
ReplyDeleteI follow you on Bloglovin.
ReplyDeleteGo easy on yourself, I rather like it! Yes, there are couple of "blue holes" but why should the low-volume-ers get the monopoly on low contrast? I didn't see sperm, I saw feathers! (and if there were naughty things to be seen, I would usually be the first to do so.) At the very, very worst, you have the best picnic blanket in the land :)
ReplyDeleteI have no TBT post to link to, I just wanted you to stop bashing your work!
I now go easy on the dots and ditsy fabric. But contrary to the current trend, I still love a beautiful border for my quilts. You are on my blog roll, so when you have a new post -- I just click on! Thanks for hosting Throwback Thursday -- what a fun link-up for us old-timers. Sally
ReplyDeleteYou are too hard on yourself. It looks like the ocean! Some blocks are better than others and so are the fabrics :)
ReplyDeleteI follow on Blogger!
ReplyDeleteI agree with everybody, value is definitely a learning experience! Heck, quilting itself is always a learning experience. This TBT post, I definitely saw that I learned a bit better how to make a busy quilt vs. a hectic quilt (there is a difference in my mind! Lol). But it's fun to see how we changed and have grown, so the temporary embarrassment is worth the laughs as we appreciate those changes! Thanks for the linkup!
ReplyDeleteI follow via e-mail. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteSince I started quilting I have had trouble coordinating fabrics. I still do.
ReplyDeleteFor my first quilt, I filled it with an extremely heavy wool blanket. I didn't know any better. I yarn tied it and backed it with inexpensive muslin. Besides looking awful, the backing was so thin that the yarn pulled right through it. Quite a disaster (thought the quilt top was nice.) I still have it and hope to find time to restore it someday.
ReplyDeleteI happily follow via bloglovin!
ReplyDeleteWell, Jenn, I dunno, I kinda like this one mostly because it reminds me of variations in water. You don't notice the patterns so much as the "wateriness." I don't do borders much anymore, but it was probably great for it's time. Let's see. I'm bound to repeat some of my errors from the past. I made a quilt for our bed that took me so many years to make that we ended up moving before it was finished (I had even decorated our old bedroom around it.) In the meantime, we used an old rag of a bedspread because I refused to buy a new one before the quilt was finished. It was hand quilted with way too much quilting (also had contrast issues.) It's still on our bed. Hmmm.. I think I've got the topic of my next tbt post.
ReplyDeleteI have you bookmarked. Pitiful, right? I do need to get with the program.
ReplyDeleteI posted my first quilt -- lots of quilting in the center of the quilt and absolutely none at all in the borders! Not to mention binding wide enough to count as an additional border! Personally, I love the colors in your quilt...and would never use the fabrics the fabrics in my first quilt again! I follow you on Feedly.
ReplyDeleteLOL Jenn, my daughter rejected a fabric for a backing once because she said the tiny paisleys looked like "sinister sperm". I still laugh thinking about it.
ReplyDeleteI'm not entering the giveaway, but just wanted to say that I think your quilt is not an ugly one, even with the lack of contrast in values. all those blues are beautiful. It's just a quilt that asks for closer examination.
I will share with you one early quilting mistake I made repeatedly and it is the reason I cannot join your linky party. When I first started quilting a little over four years ago, I gave my quilts away without ever taking a photo of them. "Aack!" - I know! I have only ever kept one quilt I've made, my first one, so sometime I will do a post about it and then come and play.
I follow by email.
ReplyDeleteI have learned a lot through my quilting years but I still find matching seams and making sure I don't lose points bothersome. Sometimes it bothers me enough to rip it out and sometimes it doesn't until it's all finished and then the mistake is staring me in the face and that's all I see. I made my first quilt when I was 16 and never got a picture of it and then sold it for a dollar at a yard sale and now I wish I had it back. Big regret there!!
ReplyDeleteOn my first quilt, I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't sew a 1/4" seam and I didn't nest my seams at all. That quilt has some squares that are off by over 2"! I've learned a lot since that original one ;) Thanks for sharing your quilt sampler. I do like all the different blocks :)
ReplyDeleteI follow by Bloglovin'
ReplyDeleteWhen I first started quilting, I would stitch in the ditch. No more. Never again.
ReplyDeleteIt is slow and painful and I rarely stay in the ditch. I owe it to Jacquie Gering; her class about walking foot quilting has been a savior!!!
Since I just discovered your blog, I have added it to my reading list :-)
ReplyDeletehttp://sewpreetiquilts.blogspot.com
Late with my blog-reading this week but anyway.... I have Quilts! Quilts!! Quilts!!! on my bookshelf. Still love flipping through it.
ReplyDeleteNot related to Throwbacks, but in response to Preeti's comments above, be on the lookout for Jacquie's next/second creativebug class about cool quilting patterns that can be done with a walking foot. I feel ok about FMQ but I'm still too chicken to try it out on a bed-sized quilt!!!
Hi! I missed this post because I was shopping fabric in Finland! You know what, I love this quilt! As a whole it looks gorgeus and the colours are most beautiful! There may be those 'things' you listed, but I think they may be the reason this looks super! There are so many sampler quilts where you can see very well and separate each block. The border is usually in 'right balance' and the binding always with different colour so we can see it. But in your quilt I see art - it's like a beautiful, unique painting! Thank you for the inspiration! x Teje
ReplyDeletewww.nerospost.wordpress.com
I think you are being too hard on yourself. Even though it is a sampler of many blocks, it looks tied together because you have used the same colour family.
ReplyDeletePolyester batting - never again. Say no more.