Quilting

I thought I’d better post something before the end of October, just so my poor old blog didn’t fall into the category of lost-and-forgotten and start falling off everyone’s reading lists.

I did start a number of blog posts over the last month and a half, but they either got too boring, or something else interrupted, and I could never quite finish. The same could be said for most of my sewing and crafting projects!

However, I did have one success, at least in terms of completion.



A quilt!

This was a multi-purpose project. Originally, its raison d'être was to use up the acres of quilting cotton in odd colors that had inexplicably accumulated in my stash. Then, as I piled up the bits of brown and gold and plum and rust, I saw a nice trend toward earth tones (my version of earth tones), which started me thinking about living room décor rather than bedding. So the quilt’s second purpose was to camouflage the couch.



My couch in its original state

My dog in his preferred spot on the couch back

 

The couch after 7 years with the dog
(that's the other dog - she can't believe it, either)

 

I recently added a couch cover
(hard to say whether this is an improvement, but at least it's washable)

 

Quilt totally distracts from misshapen couch back
and tacky cover!

Matching pillows

 

And just a general comment on quilting: now I remember why I don’t do it. It’s a huge pain! The planning, cutting, and sewing together are all very enjoyable, but the quilting itself? It’s a horror of lifting, turning, pulling, puckering, running out of thread, and getting stuck by pins. I can see why most people use long-arm quilting services, but it’s too expensive for me. I priced a few local services and even for this small (48” x 80”) piece, the very lowest price I could find was $58. Imagine doing a bed-sized quilt!

Anyway, my next quilt will either be done by quilt-as-you-go, or a rag quilt, so there will be no dragging of gigantic, heavy pieces through my little home sewing machine.

 

Katrina