Saturday, March 17, 2012

I need a new Bed Quilt!

I mentioned the craft winds were changing. While I've been knitting every night, I've also spent time quilting and planning a new queen size quilt. The current one on my bed is, how can I put this politely, well used. It was one I made for a class I was teaching at my shop. Big strips of material sewn on a serger in similar manner as a log cabin design. But - this one was one giant log cabin and the batting, front and back were all serged together at the same time from the center out. The serged seams weren't made to hold up for over 10 years of almost constant use. The fact that this thing isn't totally shredded and worn out is amazing. It has seams that have given way and a few tears in the material but - hey - it still works for warmth.

So, I started playing with my Electric Quilt software. I've come up with a few designs that I'm thinking about making. The colors of the designs aren't the final ones but I picked them for contrast and to get an idea what the blocks would look like together. They're all for a queen size bed so some blocks are larger than others. What do you think?

This one is actually longer than I would make it - take away one row of the stars and shoo fly blocks and you get what it would look like. I started with a layout that was too long and didn't feel like redoing the whole thing just to get an idea of what the blocks looked like together.


The blank space at the top of the next one would be an applique motif. This quilt was designed after looking at some pictures I took at the MN Quilt Show 10 years ago.



I like the way the Snails Trail and the Stars play against each other in this one. The green and blues would be all sorts of materials in those colorways and not just one material of each. I like the "organized" scrappy look and think it gives quilts more life.

So - I'm almost done free-motion quilting the wall hanging I made over 10 years ago. It will look great on the dining room wall for Christmas next year - its my turn to have the family and a new something would be nice. After that quilt is done I'll get serious about starting a bed quilt. Which one of these do you think it should be?

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