My quilt criteria

Before he dies, everyman should plant a tree and write a book.
~ I'm not sure who said that but I'd like to add "make a quilt" to that list.

Here are my criteria for choosing my quilt pattern:

1. I want to be able to use lots of scraps of favourite old and new prints.
2. I want it to evolve over a couple of years. I don't want to plan the whole design, buy the fabric and know what it will look like when it is finished. I want it to be flexible enough to change a little if my ideas change.
3. I want it to include fabrics from different eras of my life.
4. It should cover my queen/king size bed.
5. It will be colourful, I know I can't stop myself on this one.
6. I don't want to be stuck on a sewing machine for the whole thing. I want to be able to cut bits out and have them available for when I have time and want to do a bit of relaxing hand stitching.
7. I want to include a few secret messages in it.
8. I should last beyond my lifetime. I'd like to be able to hand it down to one of my kids. I might need to make two eventually. It will have to be made of sturdy fabrics. I'll have to be careful with my vintage picks.
9. I'm looking at repeating patterns/quilt blocks. There may be some applique but I don't want it to be mainly about applique.
10. I like hand-quilting but don't yet know how I will manage it on a large quilt when I have no frame.
11. I may put it away for months at a time so I need a design I can pick up and carry on working, without getting confused.
12. I want to enjoy making it as much as using it!
13. I don't want to end up in ten years, with a great big UFO (unfinished object) that sucked my time and resources.

Right now I'm favouring variations on Grandma's Fan and Rob Peter to Pay Paul, like this one from Be*mused's Tokyo Quilt Festival album.

I'm sorry I don't know who the maker is. If anyone else does, please let me know.

The quilt on the Susan McCord Calendar from my last post is also a kind of variation on this block theme, but a "crazy" one.

This next one is Kaffe Fassett's version of a Rob Peter to Pay Paul with a central applique.

I'm not so crazy on the central applique in that one, but I like the applique in this next quilt also from Be*mused's Tokyo Quilt festival album.

The applique is a kind of Grandma's Fan full circle. That seems to be a theme in the quilts I favour. Must be that polka dot thing. This quilt uses a lot of printed text fabrics. I like the way it offers the possibility of sneaking in some secret messages to the block quilt format. But do I want to go that far down the applique trail? I'm not so sure.

Today's Inspiration: I'm trying so hard not to get distracted but then I saw these pillows in a post by Anna Maria.

Likes: Pretty soon I'll be finished writing my book and then I'm going to go to the British Museum and the V&A to do some drawing. I can't wait!

Dislikes: Rain in January.

Comments

[Jan]

It's somewhat ironic that you're finding inspiration at my blog, because I've recently been poring over Shirley Trevena's books (which I first saw here at your place) as I venture back into painting. Mutual inspiration society!
I'd like to clarify one thing re: my Tokyo Quilt Festival photo album. As I mentioned in one of my posts about the festival (February, 2006 archives), my omission of the Japanese quilters' names was only because at the exhibit, all of the identifying information was written in Japanese. I would be most happy to update my photos if someone can supply me with any of the artists' names.

[Lila]

Great to find your blog!
I am a quilter/watercolor artist/art doll maker...etc.
(I have been loving Shirley Trevena's books and feel so freed by her approach!)
I think you are going about making your quilt in a very good artistic (and romantic) way...slowly, working in lots of fabrics and memories!

[lazylol]

Your quilt idea sounds lovely, I hope you can start it soon. I would love something like that.

[llfrost]

Maybe you'd like to do a cathedral window quilt. Some construction is by machine, some of it is by hand, and when you're done it doesn't need to be quilted! The pattern at this site even has a back polkadotted with buttons:
http://www.sewing.com/projects/cathedralwindow/index.shtml
I'm blogging at http://www.13thstreetstudio.typepad.com/

[Sarah]

Quilt on Juju, and if you need some hand quilting inspiration come and play at our house... Kathy and I hand quilt them all and it's worth every stitch and bleeding fingertip. Looking forward to what you come up with :)

[jude]

great list, and tks for your kind comment on my blog.
:-)

[Helen Chisholm]

Fab list of objectives I'm sure you will achive them. Personally I have not yet seen the light with quilting (like why cut up all those little bits and put them together? feel the same about knitting socks). Still I'm moved emotionally........ you could be the influence to make me change my mind! I am looking forward to following your progress

[susan]

i like your lists... i love jan's site too, not that i can quilt well, but admire all that you and she do!
i have been working on a huge lap quilt for ten years made up of three rows of houses with changing grasses and skies. maybe this is the year to finish the hand quilting part (make it machine?) and bind the thing. yeah. Love that record one on top!

[whitney-anne]

good to work out your criterion first... maybe you could make the quilt in sections that can be hand quilted and then pieced together to make one big quilt...I've got no patience for a big thing, I stick to coverlets and throws. Good luck!

[readytopretend]

I have found that quilting as you go means that I can work on sections, either on my lap or at the machine. This works really well. When the top is done you layer the batting and backing and then hand quilt or machine stitch it. I prefer the former. You leave a quarter inch edge all the way around. You then join the top to its neighbour, turn over and whip stitch the batting to its neighbour and then blind stitch the back to its neighbour. This technique allows it to be portable and also allows for huge pieces like aking size. I have had a lot of fun with this. I also have found that my work is very differnt because I may want to do different sections with different designs using the fabrics to be the continuity.
Best of luck
Janet