I Did It Again
I cut up a finished quilt.
Don’t panic, though. The quilt just wasn’t that great. Here it is, As I Watched in Wonder.
Click any image for a larger view
Thankfully, the colors aren’t quite so jarring in person, but this quilt just never quite sang. (At least not on key!) It had wonderful little details of hand stitching and hand dyed splotchiness. I knew I could at least do something with the nice little details, so I began to consider cutting it up to make more Notes for a Friend.
First, I used a 5 x 7 paper window to identify and mark the sections I wanted to turn into notes.
I spent some time deciding on the orientation for each one (although that’s flexible.)
Then, I added small pieces of fabric to create or enhance a focal point.
Finally, I added more hand stitching to the seed stitching and French knots already there.
Don’t you love those details?
Hey, these were starting to look really good! (MUCH better than the original quilt.)
On a related note, I have a reputation, locally, for being the Queen of the Crop. And it’s not undeserved. Once, in a round robin style exercise, I asked a quilter if I could crop her piece. She agreed and I returned it to her with about 2/3 of it removed. Apparently, this was not what she was expecting! I still get ribbed about that today, and there are frequently jokes about keeping quilts away from me and my rotary cutter.
Still, it’s served me well on other occasions.
Ellen Lindner
P.S. See the other quilts in the Notes for a Friend series.
