November 7, 2008

Practice, practice, practice...



I'm working on a few little quilt tops for the "Weather Creek Quilts" google group I mentioned a couple of posts back. Designer Trudie Hughes is conducting a series of quilt lessons and suggested that we have a few small quilt tops saved for pieced border practicing a little later on.

The photo above is a top I made to practice the "Birds in the Air" piecing. Fun to make and only took a couple of hours at most.

The fabrics next to it at the bottom left of the photo are ones I was auditioning to see if I have anything that I can use in the pieced border later on. (The colors are off but my photos usually are :-)

Love this fabric with the animals in the park that I used for the alternate blocks...




Some patterns being produced these days try to make things so simple that there's no longer any expectation of accuracy. Am I the only that's getting tired of nearly all the recently designed patterns instructing you to "sew and flip" and whack off the extra fabric? They've even termed it "bonus triangles" to make you think you're getting something out of that fabric you just wasted! It's so common in fact, that quilters are making little quilt tops just to start using them all up!

With fabric creeping up to the $10 a yard price range... and the economy in the tank.... I'd rather not waste a yard here and another there because the pattern designers assume we can't sew accurately!?! I'm all for quicker and easier methods... I work a full time job and my quilting time is limited. But, I don't want to get so absorbed into finding them that I avoid using the skills that I've worked so hard to accomplish.

I love patterns as much as the next girl. I buy many just to put in my binder and look through when I'm too tired to sew, or need a little inspiration. But, I don't want patterns to be the "be all, end all" of my quilting. I hope as I continue to fine tune my skills and add to them, I'll be more inclined to blaze my own trails and less likely to just clone what I see!

I want to learn as much as I can, while I can. How often do you find a designer willing to take quilters by the hand and work to make sure they learn the fundamentals? Although I do have some 20 years quilting experience, it's good to step back and practice a few skills that are a little rusty. It's even better to learn a few new ones!

I splurged this week and bought a cute brightly colored fabric panel... Lots of possibilities with this one! ;-) I give most of the quilts I make away and making quilts for children going through tough times is rewarding beyond belief.



I don't think I could ever sell one of my quilts, could you? There's a little bit of my heart in each and every one. You give your heart away, you don't sell it.

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