Saturday, July 08, 2006

Patriotic Crazy

I spent yesterday being productive in a lazy kind of way. Got grocery shopping out of the way and then spent the afternoon going through magazines, ripping out articles I want to keep and then tossing them (the magazines, not the articles).

Here I was worrying about how dull my blog is going to be over the next few months, yet ya'all seem to be happy seeing the old stuff over again, so that gives me something to write about after all.

This is my Patriotic Crazy quilt. It's a cotton crazy - made similiarly to traditional crazy quilts, only in cotton and without any of the embroidery. It's like Bonnie playing with crumbs , only I don't make my units into consistently sized blocks.

It's about 18" by 20" and was inspired by Gwen Marston's "Liberated Quiltmaking." I like the quilt, I'm pleased with how it turned out, but I did learn that when I'm working with fabrics that are this busy I don't want to use so many scraps this tiny. I've gotten better about throwing away little tiny bits, but I always figured that if a scrap was 3/4" by 3/4" (or even an eensy bit smaller) it was big enough to save...

This quilt top wasn't constructed in the usual fashion. Instead of making the central bit and then surrounding it with borders, I made two parts. I had an upper section with border on three sides and a lower section, also with three sides bordered. Then I joined them unevenly.

This unit is 2.75" square. Roughly. It looks way bigger on my monitor than it does in real life. If you're trying to figure out the construction, remember that the shorter the seam, the earlier it was sewn.

I did a bit of fussy cutting to get the wonderful flag in this unit. That tiny white rectangle is a bit less than a quarter inch across. I told you I love tiny pieces and they're so easy to work with on a project like this.

This tells you how big of a geek I am. I actually wrote the Tour de France schedule down so I would know when the rest days are and when we get the exciting mountain stages. When I watched the race in the states, it was always on in the morning and rarely caused a scheduling problem. Now it's on right at the time I should be making dinner and it's causing chaos.

Can't believe how little the American press is playing the race up this year. Several Americans have a great chance at it with Lance retired and so many condenders dropped due to a big doping scandal.

12 comments:

Unknown said...

This is a very exciting little quilt! This sort of thing would work really well with the Mile-a-Minute approach. I made one of those that was totally chaotic and am currently working on one with a very controlled palette. I guess you'd have to call red, white and blue a controlled palette, but the effect of this is barely controlled chaos and I like it a lot.

Unknown said...

P.S. I LOVE the uneven border idea too. I may just have to steal this idea.

Sassenach said...

Tonya,
Thanks for posting the close-ups -- I really like this quilt.

I noticed the blue-white-red combination in several places and am wondering if this meant in homage to France's support to la liberte?

Finn said...

Hey Ton, I've got sort of an answer(for myself at least) as to why we seem "happy to see the old stuff"...LOL. Like your pretty face, I am happy to see quilts that you've shown before. It's not like you are showing us the umpteenth YBR, you know. Most of us are looking at hundreds of quilts from all over the world. With so many to look at, maybe we don't examine each one as closely as if there were only 2 or 3. And even if we do, I never quite "see" everything. I've seen your liberty blooms quite a few times(by choice..same with your Space Invaders..I know right where they are) and I just noticed what looked like beads this time around..go figure!

And sooo many are new readers...Ann or Bonnie or someone said it the day of the blooms, they didn't see it last year. No everyone has the time to read the archives like we do...LOL..you and me..*VBG*
Maybe make a schedule of what will be featured in the coming weeks as you get ready for the pack out...*G* I know I'd love to see some of the halloween stuff again..well, almost anything, for that matter. That way you could just post what you'd predecided..?? Kinda like the Tour without Lance???
But kitty pictures and "about town" pictures are fun too!

ForestJane said...

I like your fans quilted in the border too!

Susan said...

Great little quilt. I should probably think more in terms of little, now that we're living full time in a 5th wheel! But I don't. I do a lot of red/white/blue, for American Hero Quilts, but have none for myself. Maybe I will use some of my scraps this way. Except I like the embroidery part of CQ the best! Maybe I could do it in the borders instead. Anything smaller than 2" goes to a good friend. I'm just not into tiny. But I love seeing *you* do it! LOL!

Judy said...

Hey unless I've gone back into the archives I haven't seen any of these yet. I did go back though.

I can't believe how tiny the pieces are that you keep. I guess that's why I seemed to waste so much material in the letters. I wasn't keeping all the cut off pieces!! Next time I'll keep them and make smaller letters! Yikes! That's small!

Katie said...

Keep them coming. On different days I need different inspirations. Don't forget the kitty pics.

Joyce said...

I am impressed with your use of tiny pieces. I don't have much patience for that but maybe it's time to try. I thought I didn't have patience for quilting either until I actually tried it. It only took about five minutes for me to be hooked for life.

Laura said...

What a great little quilt, I can't wait to see all the "old stuff"!

Quilts And Pieces said...

I love it! It is a lot like my liberated log cabins - which I"m chunking away at the quilting yet (off and on)! But I have to have it done for a retreat I'm going to in Sept for show and tell - so I had better get chunking faster!

Lily Mulholland said...

I am being strict and only keeping scraps 1" or bigger. I have absolutely nowhere to store it all except in a big rolling tub that lives under a chair in our dining room, so I have to be strong!

Love how you've constructed this quilt. It's very gorgeous! Looks great with the big fat red border with fans.