Patchwork Home

Last night I had my Homemaker’s Group over so that meant – major cleaning of the house.  Our couches are fairly stained from raising three little kids and I’m not going to replace them until everyone is at least a few years older so I decided to put my quilts on them as slipcovers.  Above is my woven quilt.  I dyed all the fabric in the quilt and then Barb quilted it for me.  Next, I cut the quilted fabric into strips and bound them all.  Then, I wove them together, squared everything up and did a binding around the outside of the quilt.  Once the pins were taken out the quilt wasn’t staying in place so I sent it back to Barb and she did a square quilting at each of the woven intersections.  You still get the woven effect but it keeps its shape much better.  I did this quilt because I didn’t like to match my corners when piecing.  I can say now that it’s MUCH easier to just take my time and match my corners than it is to weave a quilt! I also hung a bunch of my quilts on the wall for the evening as my talk was on my quilts and the renovation of my quilting/jewelry room (blog post on that coming soon).  Above you can see most of the quilts on the wall.  It was hard to get a decent picture with the sun coming in the windows.  The quilt on the futon is the apple core quilt that Diane made for our wedding.  The guests all signed a block before it was put together – a great memento! If I remember correctly, the quilt above was the third quilt I ever made.  It’s king size so it’s huge!  It also has a flannel back so it’s super cozy!  Some of the fabric I dyed, some Diane dyed, and some is commercial.  I designed the pattern myself using the star medallions (there are 7 total) as the centerpiece of the quilt.  I used all LARGE Half square triangles to create this look so it actually went together really quickly.  I hadn’t looked at it for awhile so it was nice to pull it out and admire it again!   Right now my family room looks like an art gallery with the quilts hanging all over – but for the first time in almost 6 years it’s starting to feel like ‘our’ house (Jared likes the cluttered look too!).