Looking Back and Looking Forward #5

This is a quilt I made out of strings. It was my very first string quilt and it started my thrilling addiction to string quilts. I named this one "Sting Obsession." You can read the story behind the quilt by clicking on the Provenances tab above, then just scroll down until you see the title of this quilt.

Provenances are a very important step in quilt making. I know we mostly put a label on the back of the quilt; hopefully with the date made along with any other information you want. But a provenance provides the background on the quilt. It can be as short such as when you started and ended the quilt and who you made it for and why. Others, like me, who like writing can go for the gusto by writing all about the quilt:  how you found the fabric and/or pattern, the making of the quilt, and any cool stuff about the quilt. My Aunt Marie, who is my muse, left me 12 quilts when she passed. If you go to the left column and scroll down to labels, click on Marvelous Marie, you'll see some beautiful quilts she made. She made almost all her quilts totally by hand: cutting out pieces with scissors, sewing pieces together and quilting by hand. The one thing she didn't do was leave no information on the quilt. There are no labels and I wish I knew the stories behind them. The message of the day is: Label your quilts and keep a provenance! So now, I will get off of my soap box and start reporting progress for the last week.

Looking Back

My only goal for last week was to start cutting the fabric for Firstest. Let's have a big round of applause for ... ME! I did it! I nailed it, or rather, I cut it! I sewed it together!

Firstest is my grandson who is graduating from High School this year. His favorite color, since he was a kid, is orange. Just recently he added aqua to his favorite colors. I found a great pattern called "Boomerang" that I thought would fit his favorite colors.

It looks complicated but the good thing is that it doesn't have Y seams!!!! Repeat: NO Y seams!!!! It could have C, or P, or even T seams and that wouldn't have mattered---all that matters is....NO Y seams!

Did I tell you that it didn't have any, zero, zilch, no Y seams.

I had my fill of Y seams when I made a Lone Star quilt.

I decided to use solids for the quilt, And here are some pictures to amaze and delight you, especially since there are no Y seams.

I have 3 shades of each color: orange, aqua, and grey. And now I see it! There are only two shades of orange in the picture. Well, there you have it. I'm not perfect. It's so embarrassing!

I think I can live with it.

Maybe.

And now, to your surprise and delight, here are more pictures of the ongoing quilt.

Sew together two strips of different colors. Cut into 60' triangles.

Sew two of the triangles together.

 

This is a sample of how they will look together. Of course I had only cut up 2 strip sets. It's going to look a lot different with 9 colors.  I think they look like a school of fish. Do you?

I've already cut out 10 strips and sewed them together in pairs. I've cut a 2 strip sets into triangles and have just started pinning them together to sew.

I got a lot farther than I thought I would. Which is very good. Very encouraging.

And now, without further ado...

Looking Forward

Keep sewing on Firstest's quilt. I have to make 143 fish (full blocks). I'm going towards a single bed size. It doesn't matter if he uses it for his bed; my go to size for "lap" quilts is a twin size. I like a quilt that can cover you from the toes to the nose. I guess it's more a body quilt than a lap quilt! 

I'll aim for, ummm, let's say 45 blocks. That would be one-third of the blocks done. That's a hefty chore, but it would be great if I could get all the blocks cut in 3 weeks. It would leave time for quilting it.

Announcement:

There's a whole lot of fun happening on Thursdays in my blog! It's a new feature on my blog! It's Throwback Thursday, a chance to re-visit a blog from my posts from years ago! It's new! Lots of fun! Fun for days! Give it a try! Here's the link for yesterday's post, jump on over to there! 

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Good night!

I'm channeling Sound of Music!

I'll be posting in the linky parties listed in the left column. Mosey on over and have a great time seeing other quilter's makings.

Nyd din dag  (It's Danish!)