Tuesday, March 22, 2011

More UnRuly Letters from Lajla

Do you all remember Lajla? She's a wonderful Norwegian-Australian quilter who's made two previous UnRuly Word quilts which I shared in this post. Well she has made another pair of awesome quilts. She describes them as "use what you've got quilts." She only bought fabric for the backing - the rest all came out of stash. Both are machine quilted or else, she explains, they'd never be finished. Boy do I understand how that works...

First off is her four letter Word quilt - another take on using just four letter words like we did with Cake.


I love love love this quilt it is so joyous and exuberant. I asked her how she went about making it:
I had a list of words written down and decided to put GIVE HOPE together, somewhat fitting these days with all the drama unfolding around the world. Including Australia where we have had serious flooding this year. Started off with LOVE in the middle and just kept going, making one world at a time. Then I realised I would probably have to increase the size of the words as I went, or I would run out of words, and would maybe have to include the one word most people think about when you say 4 LETTER WORD........Some people look for it, even turning the quilt over to see if I have put it on the back! I sort of made this as a protest to how that word has become part of daily language, at least in this neck of the woods. 

So I had to get my tape measure out; the quilt is 51" x 56" (kind of!) I only measured across the middle to be safe, my quilts are not guaranteed to be perfectly square (life is too short). LOVE block is 8 1/2" x 12" and CHAT letters are 7 1/2" tall (approx). WISH is next to PLAY and it is not a good contrast so difficult to see in photo. But as I said, I used what I had of fabrics, and I am not one to unpick either...
 Unsurprisingly, I love her attitude as well as the quilts. I often list the size of my quilts along with an -ish tacked on at the end.

Here are a couple of close-ups. This is the center, so you can see how she created it medallion style:


I love this HELP. I'm sure Lajla used it in the sense of Help One Another but it looks like a Help Me! as the word goes sliding out of the block. Adds some humor.


This Home quilt is a sampler with houses, trees, hearts, cupcakes and mugs. Doesn't it just glow?


Lajla (shown here on a textile tour of India - my do I have envy) adds:
My quilts are pretty much just whacked together........Not much pre-planning, which lands me into trouble at times, or into a corner. Then I have to problem solve and get myself back on track. That's part of the fun!  ... just tell people DON'T THINK TOO MUCH, go for it!

Thank you so much, Lajla, for sharing your experiences and quilts with us. I adore you!

Hope you all enjoyed this too. Pokey just brought a pompom - time to play.

24 comments:

joe tulips said...

I love, love, love it too. I can sit, stare and study it for a long time. I can be so perpendicular. Then again that is just me and my style, I guess. I never would have thought of going round and round this way. Wow! Great quilts.

Kim said...

Oh goodness what a great inspiration... just lovely ....so many quilts to be made so little time.
thanks for sharing these terrific quilts.
Happy Sewing

Kim said...

Oh does Lajla have a blog we can visit?

Thanks,
Happy Sewing

Tonya Ricucci said...

Nope, Lajla is unfortunately blogless. Or perhaps fortunately since it seems like she's getting a lot more sewing done than I am!

Sue said...

Absolutely fabulous quilts. I love the Words, but the Home one just speaks to me. She is right about so much going on in the world and so many people hurting. The places we live may look different and sometimes they are only held in our hearts, but we all need a home. Beautiful job. Sue in Mi

AnnieO said...

Those are both fantastic, I agree! Thanks for sharing.

Kristin Shields said...

Both wonderful! Congrats to Lajla!

deborah said...

Both are amazing! Love her style!

Amy said...

Gorgeous quilts thank you for introducing her to us.maybe you could persuade her to start a blog.just a thought(lol)

jan in nagasaki said...

i love Lajla's quilts and i love her quilting attitude!!! even though her quilts look quite different from mine, we seem to both approach them in a similar process... or rather--lack of process!!!!

this is great, thank you!!

VivJM said...

Oh yes, these quilts are both wonderful. Hooray for Lajla! Thanks for sharing x

Theodora quilts said...

They are so fun and wonderful I shall make a letter quilt one day I have it on my list ,once I finish some ufo's LOL.theodora

Michele said...

What a talented quilter! Both quilts are so fun. I bet Lajla had a blast making them.

Twisted Quilts said...

She is so so creative. I love the Home quilt. I could look at her quilts all day and still see something new. Thanks for sharing.

Kathy in FL said...

Beautiful quilts! I'm inspired to make a word quilt for myself. Add an unrully word quilt to my list of quilts to make, would you?

YankeeQuilter said...

Great quilts! She has a great attitude too...(I like how her words all look different....)

Barb said...

super fun liberated quilts!
made my morning!

Marisa said...

How cute! I love the first one, especially the quilting on it, it's neither traditional nor modern squiggles, just some nice angles and squares.

julieQ said...

I love unruliness!!!

Rachael said...

Such fun, happy quilts! Wonderful!

Rosalyn Manesse said...

Super great words and I love the attitude, life is too short! So true. now I'm wanting to make some cupcakes on my quilts

Nifty Quilts said...

Great quilts! I like this gal's attitude--don't think too much. Love those red shoes too.

cauchy09 said...

gosh, how inspiring! i love the medallion construction of the first one. and i love how she embraces the fun of improv patchworking.

Sue Dennis said...

Great to see such inspirational quilts. Thanks for sharing Lajla.