Wow! Throwback Thursday has reached double digits. Thank you to everyone who shares their quilts - the good, the bad, the ugly. I mean the quilts - not the bloggers! ☺
This month, I'm sharing a quilt I made in 2005. Though I'd been quilting for 8 years at that point, I still think of this one as a very early days quilt. It's from a pattern published in Quiltmaker over 4 months - America the Beautiful (I think).
Since it has so rarely seen the light of day, this quilt made the most of its time out. Lounging on the dock... frolicking in the woods.
I loved making the sunset block. So much so that I made a wall hanging of the three sun blocks for a friend as a wedding present. I suspect it still hangs in her home... bad appliqué and all. Which is particularly funny, given that this quilt has never hung anywhere. Never sat on the back of a couch. Nothing. It sits folded on a shelf.
Though they were fiddly to piece, I still love the look of those Ocean Wave blocks. One can never go wrong with blue and yellow. Classic. But that quilting... oh my. So wiggly.
I remember loving making the yellow string blocks. They used a stitch and flip technique and it just felt so creative. It was very likely the first rumblings of improv stirring in my quilty soul. The trees feature scraps of my (then) closely guarded Jinny Beyer scraps. She was probably the first fabric designer I could name! So many tone on tones!
More solid backings and strange knife edge bindings. You can get a gander of my higgledy piggledy quilting. Oh, you FMQ beginners, take solace in the fact that it gets easier!
I actually remember quilting this one using Glad Press n' Seal on the blocks. I would "stick" it to the quilt, mark on it with Sharpie, and if I liked the motif, stitch right through it. It was a bitch and a half to remove and I don't know that it was very good for my machine! And though you can't read it, the border features these words...
The beauty of the trees,
the softness of the air,
the fragrance of the grass,
speaks to me.
The summit of the mountain,
the thunder of the sky,
the rhythm of the sea,
speaks to me.
The faintness of the stars,
the freshness of the morning,
the dew drop on the flower,
It's a segment (as much as I could fit!) from
My Heart Soars by Chief Dan George.
Spring is slowly coming in Nova Scotia!
For this month's giveaway, I'm diving into the stash again. I've been a little quiet lately about
The Year of the Stash,
but I haven't forgotten! The winner will receive a custom 4 fat quarter bundle. Colour, style... it's up to them! How to win?
- Link-up a blog post telling all about 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 for your sidebar.
- Leave a comment on this post telling me about a technique - like my Glad Press n' Seal - that you'd NEVER dream of using again!
The giveaway is open to International participants until Sunday, May 8th (Happy Mother's Day!) at 11:55pm Atlantic Time.
Hope to see you back for Throwback Thursday {Volume 11} on a special date, Thursday, June 9th!
J
Spray Basting!! I can't even tell you the disaster! LOL!! Thanks for the motivation this week to look back...isn't it fun to look back...even your wiggly quilting looks fine to me. I love this quilt of yours and hope it continues to lounge and enjoy the light of day.
ReplyDeleteI love this quilt! I'd heard about the Press and Seal. Nice idea but I'm glad now I never tried it.
ReplyDeleteSew4given(at)aol(dot)com
I have used the Press and Seal on a project before. It got sticky stuff all over the needle and it was awful to get picked out of the small corners of the quilting design. It's a great idea, but I'm not sure I would ever use it again.
ReplyDeleteYour quilt is great and I love the quotation. I'm with Valerie on the spray basting but then I am pretty much a traditionalist and not very brave at using new techniques with my patchwork. xx
ReplyDeleteYour quilt is so vibrant--well it would be, spending it's life on the shelf. Shame on you. Give it some love and show it off for awhile. It's worth it alone just for the lovely poetry--but I love the design and colors as well. I guess this isn't really a technique, but quilting black thread on black is something I'll probably forever avoid even though I like the look. It drives my eyes crazy.
ReplyDeleteBeuatiful quilt!!!
ReplyDeleteWe all had to start somewhere with our FMQ! At least you gave it a go! As for it tucked away on a shelf...shame shame! The wave is a great idea, love the yellow flip n' stitch. What a great quilt to learn new techniques with! I'm not sure what technique I would never use again. Usually there is some new version developed out of a technique I hated! Never say never, right?!
ReplyDeleteLike the new look to your blog! Wow, you and I are on the same wavelength today: blue and yellow, early improv, 2005...wee-ooh, wee-ooh! I used Press 'n Seal too! Hated the little plastic bits that yep were a bitch to pick out (used tweezers). Hmm other than that method I wish never to revisit, I'd say paper-piecing by sewing through paper, because I learned how to do it the paperless way thanks to Joanne at Canuck Quilter.
ReplyDeleteI think we all had to learn the horrors of Press'n Seal for ourselves:-) I'm so over batiks... I finally gave away all mine but there are still batik quilts lurking in my closets!
ReplyDeleteNot to tell you what to do, but this piece deserves to be seen, somewhere. I love the poem, and the story of quilting it. I'm surprised your machine survived it! It's a pretty neat piece and really I bet you learned a lot making all the different blocks. Great share, Jenn.
ReplyDeleteoh I have one. FMQ on "silk paper" (bad traduction....you know the paper you wrinkle to put in a gift bag) Rather than trying to pick up all the little pieces I just trashed it
ReplyDeleteI don't believe I've seen this one before. It looks great. I tried Press and Seal once -- epic failure.
ReplyDeleteThat's a beauty for a throwback quilt. You should let it out more often, lol. I've never tried the press and seal and now I don't think I ever will. Have you ever tried the method of sewing a bunch of tiny squares together by laying them out on fusible interfacing with a grid, pressing them down, then sewing all the seams? I don't think I'll be using that technique again! This was fun; I'm glad I linked up.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful quilt! The time it must have taken you to finish that one! Gorgeous! Hmmmm....I always leave a post it note on the quilt I'm quilting, with the stitch length and quilting stitch....more than a couple of times, I have just started quilting and then realize I'm not on the stitch I want! Seam Ripper to the rescue! I don't use basting pins since I discovered basting spray quickly after starting my quilty journey :)
ReplyDeleteIt's lovely. I remember when it was published. I probably still have those magazines in my storage unit. Surely you have a nice spot to display it for a little while! XO
ReplyDeleteI was traveling home to visit with family for a long weekend, so thanks for your patience with me in catching up and reading about your Throwback Quilt. I really like being able to look back and remember those first tinglings of excitement and indicators of future projects that we had know way of knowing at the time. Thank you so much for hosting the link up! :)
ReplyDeletedarn, I was doing so good on keeping up with your TT. I had pictures all ready to go into a post and it got away from me. Next month for sure. I remember trying the Glad method and I was not a fan. I really like your yellow string blocks.
ReplyDeleteGlad Press and Seal huh? I was thinking what an amazing idea until you said how hard it was to remove! LOL!
ReplyDeleteyour quilt is lovely. we try and learn. that is half the fun of quilting i think. I haven't done enough quilting to have tried something and found out it doesn't work yet. but this one is a good one to know, thanks, lol
ReplyDeletequilting dash lady at comcast dot net
Love your quilt!!
ReplyDeleteI love this quilt. It's on my bucket list. Like the bright colors. they are what caught my attention in the original pattern. Nice to see it completed.
ReplyDeleteNo big disasters here other then i learned from friends quilting that you use the same weight of border fabric as your maine quilt... happyness04431@yahoo.com
ReplyDeleteNot only do I love your quilt, but I love that you photographed it on the dock. That was perfect.
ReplyDeleteWonderful pic and such a lovely quilt! Really love the colors you used!
ReplyDeleteYour quilt is beautiful, such great colors. You should have it out somewhere, a wall or a couch to enjoy it. Spray basting is something I won't do again, wound up with puckering all over the quilt, not to mention what it did to the needle.
ReplyDeleteLove your Quilt!! Great job! I recently heard about press N Seal....thanks for the Heads Up!! Won't be trying! lol
ReplyDeleteI remember this pattern! How wonderful to see your rendition of it.
ReplyDeleteThat was one of the first quilts that inspired me when I was a new quilter! And it is still just as beautiful today as it was then :*)
ReplyDeleteBeautiful quilt and it looks like you could have made it today as a modern quilt!
ReplyDeleteHi, Jenn, I'm back, visiting from Lara's fun mini hop. Since I commented earlier, I'll just say I missed you last week (the 2nd) and then went back and read your last TBT post and realized you were otherwise occupied. I hope you had a great time at Glamp Stitchalot And I hope you enjoyed my fair state.
ReplyDeleteVisiting from BuzzinBumble. It's such fun to see a quilt from 05. I do believe it may be one of the first Row by Rows!!
ReplyDeleteI've recently been digging out old quilts from before the start of my blog, and hope to be adding more in the weeks/months to come. It's good sometimes to look back and think of what worked and what didn't; and how far we have improved since :-) It has also inspired me to use some of the old patterns and I'm planning give some a more recent interpretation. I'm sure they'd come out completely differently from all those years ago!
ReplyDeleteYour quilt is fantastic. I love the fabrics you chose.
ReplyDeleteI love this quilt - it has so many interesting blocks.
ReplyDelete