The week of endings

I Spy quilt finished. Pleated border. Buttons. 384 appliqued "I Spy" squares.

And then the I Spy quilt. It is finished! For many of you who see me out and about, you know that I have been plugging away on this baby for the past two years or so. I had a little Le Kit box that was from my childhood which I carted around in my diaper bag. At every spare moment, I would sew on a couple of little squares. At the drop-in centre. At the pool. At the playground. I was trying to bring in applique like the knitters brought in knitting.

For the backing, I used an old sarong I got from Nelson, BC back when I was in high school. It was the sarong I was wearing when I met my husband, although I haven't worn it in a long time and I don't plan to again.


My Non-Quilt Related Observations--Making It Work

Detail of "I Spy" quilt. 2012

I am often asked how we can afford to have four children with only one income. In the first place, my husband is a skilled professional who is an excellent provider and husband. (This is why I married him!) That being said, there are many people in his place of employment where BOTH parents are skilled professionals. I sometimes think that I could be a skilled professional if I had someone to watch all my kids, but this isn't the life we are choosing.

My life works well because I use two "exciting" economizing strategies: "making it work" and "waiting it out." Making it work means using things I already have to do tasks that often require other tools. This works for cookware (using a wine bottle for a rolling pin or envelopes for a funnel) to kids toys (yogurt container sandcastles, anyone?) to quilting (sarongs can be a backing!).

The point is, if you have something that works okay, just use it. Marketers and stores are trying to tell you that you NEED a quesadilla maker. (I will admit that I currently have two waffle makers though.) Also, I fight the urge to get all the attachments to any product that I use. I don't need the pasta maker that goes onto my mixer. I just don't. I look at a need I think I have and then spend my time trying to find another way to fill it. D doesn't have any shorts, but he does have a pair of holey sweat pants.
holey sweat pant + scissors = shorts

My second strategy is waiting it out. I use this primarily in our housing, but also in many other things. I might think I need a bigger house, but I'm planning on waiting until I feel I NEED a bigger house and then I plan on waiting another year. I try to do the same for everything else as well. When I feel I need a new t-shirt, I start by doing laundry. Then eventually I realize that I only have one shirt that doesn't have oil stains on it before I go out and find more. (This oil stains are getting more common since we started an exciting future with "Deep Fried Sundays." Good for the tastebuds, but not for the waistline.)

These could both be summarized by "buying less" but I believe that people generally know that to live more economically, they need to buy less. (Or maybe they think they can just buy cheaper although I don't subscribe to this.)

Finished?

Finished Sashiko Lone Star May 2012

I am done! And a few days left until the Regina quilt show.

I have come to really love the simple lines and shapes of sashiko quilting. They are so appealing to my math brain.

I have long thought of myself as an "unartistic" person, but I realize now that most of this is from the fact that I am not a great sketcher. Compared to the kids, I am pro, but I use many Ed Emberely books to get my bugs and creatures to look realistic-ish.

Sashiko Lone Star detail

But sashiko appeals to me because it seems so "mathy." I used a pattern called Ganzezashi or sea urchin stitch from a book I got from the library. If anyone is at all interested, there are tons of books you can get from the library. I could see decorating many things with the geometric marvels of sashiko.

I am wondering if I should have done more sashiko on the corners. More diagonal lines. More star points. Thoughts?

I Spy is almost there

I Spy appliqued quilt with pleated borders

I am really getting there. Now I need to decide how I'm going to quilt it. I am not feeling like machine quilting it. Nor am I feeling like I want to hand quilt it. But I was thinking that I could use little buttons to sew it all together. I have a million little white buttons from various dress shirts that I have been given for recycled quilts.

Unless there is a better idea that I'm not thinking of...

Pleats, please

G and Nana's quilt 2012

I have been puttering through my I-spy quilt for probably two years now.

I started it because my Nana made my daughter G a quilt that was I-spy and I had never seen anything so lovely. What an exciting idea! But because I don't have a lot of time to sit in front of a sewing machine, effectively staring at a wall in the basement while my children run crazy upstairs, I decided to hand applique all these tiny little squares onto a white background.

I-spy quilt with polka dot pleats

I started by just doing a mishmash of colour, finished one block like that and realized that I wasn't going to be happy with the results. You see, I don't think I have the best eye for colour.

More pleats for the quilt

Pink pleats for quilting

I imagine that this quilt could look absolutely awesome in a mishmash way, but I didn't have all the pieces picked out before I started and I wasn't confident enough that I would like it. So I went with monochromatic blocks. And because I really can't make decisions, I did it in a colour wash (from light to dark).

Now that I have finished the centre panel (24 blocks each with 16 little squares) and sewn them all together, I have the issue of borders. I feel that someone with a good "feel" for colour would be able to pick a single unifying colour that could bind the whole piece. I don't have the confidence to do that, and at this point, I'm feeling timid.

I did play around with the idea of doing white around the border, like I did in the citrus quilt, but white stains easily. And I wanted something a bit fancier and so I resolved to do pleats on polka dots.

Now each row will be bordered by a pleated block of the same colour. I might be handicapped in my ability to work colour, but I can figure out ways to get around it... What do you think?