Friday, August 10, 2007

Frankie's quilt

Okay Bacchus, take a good look, because I will probably delete this post after a few days. Here it is. It took a long time to load, so it is probably too large of a file. If it won't load for you, let me know. I'll mess with it and see if I can make it easier later.



Evan is jealous because he thinks it is a nicer quilt than his. It is. This one I started months in advance. His was a "I'm getting a new kid already?" speed quilt. I am sure he wanted me to say that I would make him a new one. Not now kid. I might promise to make him one if he gets married -- or gets as close as our country will allow. (On a side note, if they don't call it marriage it ain't marriage. Something that looks almost like a duck in one state and turns into an egg when you cross state lines, ain't a duck. It's a decoy to confuse and pacify us.) On second thought though, making quilts conditional on forming a relationship is not fair. I'll tell him he can have one for a graduation present. Whatever he wants, as long as it is in my skill level and doesn't include fabrics whose colors or patterns give me a headache.

This was the evil, quilt-as-you-go project. When I was putting it together I kept having the same thoughts. "This is stupid. No wonder most people don't do quilts like this! I'm never doing it again!" and "Well, now that I've figured this out, it's not so bad. It is a good way to get a quilt partway done and then allow the kid to make final design decisions. Maybe I will do another one. Next time though I will..."

The quilt looks nice from several feet away. I think it will hold up well. Anyone who knows anything about quilting will look closely and think, "What the hell?" and then say, "Was this your first quilt, dear?" I'm really glad that he picked one of the smaller patterns. Several of my blocks turned out to be too crooked (with respect to the backing) to be used. At this point I could make another three small throw pillows. I might be able to ruthlessly chop down the blocks and sew them into a baby quilt...

Ah but it is a quilt for a fifteen-year-old boy. He will love it.

I'm going to print the photo and send it to him at the group home.

He should be here in a week.

8 comments:

  1. Well, I'm no quilter, but it looks really beautiful to me. Lucky Frankie! And sending it to him in the group home is a great thought.

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  2. Anonymous11:02 AM

    Another non-quilter who thinks that this looks great! I love your tradition of making quilts for your kids.

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  3. Beautiful. I can't quilt, but I come from a quilting family, love quilts, and I think its gorgeous.

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  4. It looks good to me too. Just the idea of having something unique and his own is wonderful.

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  5. Looks great to me. I am not a quilter. I can do basics but that is it. I have my grandmother's sewing machine and I am in the process of making a blue-jean quilt with a "(insert first letter of last name here)" in the middle of it for our bed. Hubby wonders if it will EVER get done! LOL.

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  6. It is beautiful! I think he will love it.

    Those aren't flaws those are proof that there was enough love to overcome the challenges of putting this together. He will know how hard you worked to create a quilt to shelter and comfort a boy you didn't even know yet. That is what those little things are.

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  7. Anonymous3:26 PM

    So so beautiful.

    Hey, question. Do you ever make quilts for anyone else? Before Bug arrived, I gathered fabric for a 100 Good Wishes quilt (where you get fabric from 100 people) and all the fabric is still sitting in my closet. I don't even need anything half as fancy as what you did for Frankie. Seriously. I'd be thrilled if it was anything better than a big pile of fabric.

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  8. That's wonderful! I'm still not going to try quilt-as-you-go, but you really did a wonderful job.

    If there's one thing I know, only big picky jerks say anything about flaws in other people's quilts.

    They're "features," after all.

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