Saturday, July 18, 2015

A Challenge...Sorta


My friend Mary made this quilt, which happens to be two sided, out of family garments, and thrift shop shirts. At a lunch meeting, a few of us saw this and got the idea that this would be fun to make...that's my story and I am sticking to it. Of course we were NOT collectors of family clothing, so Mary brought out huge bins and we dug around in them collecting from her collection. Such fun.
And then to make something using the motif of Friendship Star + clothing fabrics was the challenge. O dear. I thought this would be easy peasy and fun besides. But it was a horrible struggle. 
  I made this block and felt....meh.
I kept at it for two more days, disassembling patchwork and remaking blocks and HSTs, but nothing moved me. I complained via email and found a compatriot was also struggling. In giving her advice, I found a way out for myself. 
It dawned on me that I am motivated by the fabric and the shirt fabric wasn't doing it for me. So out came the good stuff, and I surrounded my little blocks with hand dyed colors and soon I was on a roll.
 I found a plaid in my stash that brought all my colors together like a plan and that saved the day.
And here is the finished top. 53.5 x 56". I have two friendship stars leftover from the bunch I made. I will donate them to the rest of the gals.
You know I don't ever, ever do challenges, but this one made me learn so much about myself and how I would prefer to work. You'd think I would know all this stuff by now, but noooooo.
It feels great to dig into my 'saving it for something important' stash and use these fabrics. So happy!

6 comments:

  1. I love how you jumped in at made a "so not Melody" challenge into something "so Melody"! Beautiful. I miss your "daily life" posts. I hope you show pics of all the other quilts.

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  2. I'm not a big fan of traditional pieced quilts, but as usual, you find ways to turn anything into a special treat! Love it!

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  3. I'm laughing.... I went to a lecture by Bonnie Hunter who is all about using recycled clothing and has made some fun-looking quilts with them. (She even does a great demo about "de-boning" a shirt!) I buy beautiful shirts for my husband and I thought that I would start saving them for a quilt. I told him all about it and he said "NO!!!". He really does not like the idea of me using clothing to sew with. It's fine - I dye lots of fabric and have a great stash- but I was very interested in his reaction. Maybe you don't like recycled clothing either!

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  4. Fantastic piece of rescuing yourself from the situation, stunning finish!

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  5. Love how you turned a problem into a positive! Looks lovely.

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  6. Quite fabulous. We have to keep reinventing ourselves, right? But stay true at the same time. You did it!

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