The Triangle Spiderweb Quilt

I started this quilt in 1990.  I finished it today, June 26, 2012.

I took a class to learn to make this quilt. It was made by sewing 4 long strips of fabric together, then using a plastic triangle to cut out wedges.  The wedges were then sewn together, creating the pinwheel effect in the center of each block.  Sewing the blocks together resulted in the green squares with white borders.  I got tired of making triangles and sewed the 4 strip pieces together as the border. I used a sheet to make the back and machine-quilted the "spiderwebs" and the borders. 

It took five hours to finish the quilt.  

UFOs...Un-Finished Objects...

Due to our various moves, much of my sewing and quilting supplies were in storage for a number of years (not intentionally, it's just the way events came about). We also had a few family needs that required the use of my sewing room as a home/bedroom for various relatives at difficult times in their lives, which meant my sewing was packed in boxes and relegated to the garage/attic.  

I have many quilt tops where I made up the blocks and put them together, but never was able to finish the actual quilt with batting, back, and binding. 

I have several projects in which I bought the fabrics and the pattern, but never put the quilted piece together.  These include tablerunners, tablecloths, wall-hangings, small quilts and other pieces. 

I bought other patterns for future use as quilted/sewn gifts for various people.

And last, I have several projects given to me by other people to finish or repair. 

Over the next few months, I plan to finish these quilts/projects or pass them on to someone else to do (and to keep, if its stuff I'm no longer interested in). 

My ultimate goal is to NOT have a fabric stash.

After finishing up these projects, I plan to move on to other hobbies which I enjoy so much more, and will probably not return to quilting or sewing, except for the occasional project.

Time to clean up this sewing room!  

Maggie's Quilt

My sister, Maggie, embroidered these squares some time ago.  I put the blocks together, then discovered some of the squares weren't finished.  I sent the quilt back to her to finish them. 

Today, I finished the quilt.  The back and binding is a sheet, it was the only fabric I could find in my stash that was large enough, and even then, I had to expand it with another sheet.  The quilt is a queen-size, but longer than a regular queen cover.

I made a baby quilt for a soon-to-be-born grand-nephew...and discovered I had enough fabric to make another baby quilt.  So I made a second one to sell at the craft fair later this year.  It's a baby dinosaur print.  The blue fabric was from my stash.  It is backed with white muslin.

Repairing A Quilt...

This quilt was given to my sister when she was a young bride.  It was made by our paternal grandmother sometime in the early 1970s.  It was backed with an old sheet and instead of batting, the inner lining was an old damask curtain.  Much of the fabric looks like 1970's era with  psychedelic colors and patterns, but several of the fabrics look like old flour sack remnants.

The quilt was well-loved and well-used. By the time I received it to repair, there were many tears, holes and the backing and lining were beyond repair. 

I was told by a quilt expert many years ago that when repairing a vintage quilt, do not remove the torn fabric. Instead, simply put a new patch over the old one. So I did.  Eight of the bow-tie squares had to be completely covered. About five more only needed a patch over part of the bow-tie. Many other patches simply needed to be sewn back together. Some of the quilt was handsewn, some was machine sewn.  I handsewed all the repairs and machine quilted the whole thing. 

I used Warm & Natural batting as the inner lining and white muslin as the back. The binding is the back, folded over.  Note that it doesn't match widths on all sides.  I miscalculated the machine quilting gathering up the back. 

It will be returned to my sister when I go to visit next month. :)