Sunday, September 20, 2015

Tile Quilt

Often, as I go about my day, I say to myself "I can make that."  This happens a lot when I am at a store, a show, a festival, or a museum.  Usually, I continue on and never actually do that.  There isn't enough time to make everything I know I can make.

One of those moments happened when we were at the Islamic Museum in Canada a couple of months ago.  And this time, I am actually following through.  There was a tile wall - simple squares, and I decided to replicate it.

I started making this quilt with fabric I had at home, but I just wasn't feeling it, and I hadn't thought through the size I wanted and wound up with not enough fabric to make it.  This meant a few trips to the store to find the right fabric.  This background fabric was one that I rejected originally, because it has a design that looks manmade. I wanted a more mottled look that would look natural.  But it is hard to find the right shade of beige with a mottled look, at least at that store and on my budget.  I rejected this fabric a couple of times I went there, but the last time I went, I decided it would work after all.  So what if it looked man-made?  The quilt will be made out of fabric, so it already has that man-made look.

I like the design on the fabric now. I think it does add to the variability and doesn't look too man-made.  But by the time I finally decided to get the fabric, someone else had gotten to it first, and it was cut into three pieces.  I was okay with that; after all, I am going to cut it into even more, but after I washed it, I realized that someone had cut off the selvages too.   I guess that is okay too, since I would have done that too.  I think it was returned because it is not a regular cotton fabric. It is more like brushed cotton.  It is a little more stretchy than regular fabric, like flannel, but thinner.  I think it will be just fine in this quilt, and the soft fabric is nice to touch.

The design has a lot of squares next to each other that are the same color.  I decided for this quilt to cut everything into squares and sew together instead of leaving them in long rows.  I wanted to have that variability of tile.  Mmm, this looks like my tile bathroom.  I didn't need to go all the way to Canada for this design!



Don't worry. The tile design at the museum had other colors in it too. Or should I say colours?  Mostly red with a few green pieces in it.  This red is so much better than my original red. I am keeping my original green since I don't need a lot of pieces of it.  I am happy with all the fabric selection now, and this quilt is coming along quite nicely now.

It is just a matter of finding time to sew. The weather is very nice, and I want to get as much work done outside as possible.  We managed to demolish two of the flower beds completely, and just need to demolish a few more.  The yard looks so much bigger now, and I am very happy with my decision to reduce the number of flower beds I have. The driveway is looking much better now too.

There are still lots of unfinished projects to do, but progress is being made on them.

1 comment:

Lorna McMahon said...

Looks like you are well on your way with this tile quilt now, Shasta. Looking forward to seeing how the red and green tiles come into play. I hear you about the weather and getting things done outside while we still can. It won't be long and the winter will be here!