quilting collaboration

Two weeks ago when I went home for the fiber festival Mom threw an idea by me.  Since we’d both been talking about quilts lately and we inspire each other, we even feed each others obsessions and creativity when we really get going…she suggested we make a quilt together.  I was intrigued.  It would force me to learn and do learn by doing instead of just pretending to read about it (i tend to just look at the pretty pictures). 

We decided we needed some rules for our quilt.  First we decide to choose a pallet of fabric and stick to it.  It didn’t take long to decide to use batiks since we both love them and the colors are endless and not inhibiting.  I had happened to bring some batiks home with me to brain storm a project for them.  I dug them out and she was inspired by them as I was.  They consisted of some greens, pinks, and winey purples.  We headed out and bought a couple more fabrics that complimented the pallet we had going.  The main colors are pictured above.  Our second rule was we wanted to make 8inch blocks.  We can do any pattern or funky scrapy block we want.  We just have to use those batiks and make it 8inches square.
We have very different styles, she follows patterns, knows a lot of the rules and some of the tricks to quilting.  She uses a sewing machine.  She likes her triangle tips to line up and her angles to be near perfect.  I am the opposite of all these things.  In fact here are 3 very good reasons why I’m not a quilter, I don’t measure, I hand sew b/c I like to, I hate the math involved it sucks the fun out.  They are the same reasons why I wouldn’t make a very good carpenter!  I have a vague idea in my head and I attempt to create it.  Making these blocks and following some of the basic patterns is helping me to think like a quilter.  I’m coming up with easier ways to do what I originally wanted to do.

I actually almost have three blocks completed.  I only took a picture of my first block though.  It’s a very basic quilting pattern called the log cabin.  It was good to start with, it taught me to begin thinking in squares, which is proving to be hard for my nonsquare brain. I’m planning more wonky blocks soon but back to the now.

Here are Mom’s two completed blocks

and

I’m not sure what the star is called but the other block is called the basket weave.  I’m anxious to see our blocks together and see if our combined styles will mesh and make for a cohesive quilt.  Doesn’t really matter if they don’t.  We’re both having fun making them in the process and really you can’t beat that.

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