Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Q101 – Blue Memories – Quilt

Good Day,

Two sisters… The clothes of a treasured grandmother. An idea for Father’s Day. Blue Memories.


Blue Memories is a commissioned quilt… A gift to their Father for Father’s Day, of 46 shirts and skirts of their Father’s Mother, their Grandmother. And it is a humongous King-Size bedspread quilt.

After some discussion and ideas bandied about, a geometric design was fashioned to incorporate 6” (15.2 cms) and 2” (5.1 cms) squares cut from all the 46 fabrics. Each square had to be cut at 6 ½” (16.5 cms) and 2 ½” (6.4 cms) square to allow for seam allowance.

The following are my original grid and design of Blue Memories once each fabric was scanned and applied to the mock up.




The choice of placement of the 6” (15.2 cms) and 2” (5.1 cms) squares in the overall scheme of the design is based on a controlled randomness. We have developed a definite steadfast technique. All the cut 6 ½” (16.5 cms)  squares were placed in a brown paper bag. (I’m not sure if the color of the bag has anything to with the final composition of the squares and patterns.) The bag is shaken and stirred and then each square is drawn out one at a time. (We did decide to forgo the blindfold procedure of this methodology.)

The same was done with the 2 ½” (6.4 cms) squares. In the placement of the squares, especially the striped ones we attempted to position them all, as best as possible, in a uniform direction. The quilting was decided to be horizontal and parallel lines, perpendicular to the direction of the striped fabrics. Each line of quilting is ½” (1.3 cms) apart and each line is just about 1,700 stitches of thread.

The final dimensions of Blue Memories are: Length – 114” (290 cms) and Width 114” (290 cms). It is a large King size quilt that can be used as a bedspread. As the actual width of the Blue Memories is larger than the width of the rack of our Longarm quilting table, we compensated by completing a 3” (7.6 cms) wide diagonal series of parallel lines sewn on each side using a Domestic machine.

Here are some more images; close-ups and the back of Blue Memories.




The final destination and new home for Blue Memories is Baltimore, Maryland.

If you are interested of commissioning and working with Andy and I to create your memory quilt, please contact us. If you would like some more information of available quilts, regarding costs, shipping, and insurance, please check our Quilts SB Etsy shop.

Andy and I are moving at a steady pace with our quilt and fabric wall hanging work. Keep abreast of all updates. I have added a “Follow By Email” capability at the bottom right of each posting under The Grid. You can also become a Follower of Quilts SB. Click on the “Join this site” to follow Quilts SB. I’ve added another means to follow the images of our quilt creations via Pinterest.

Check out my new experimental format of my Blog, Quilts SB Test. Certainly would appreciate your feedback.

To see previously posted quilts, there is a visual Grid presentation at the bottom of the Quilts SB page. Move your cursor over any mini-picture found there and click to see an enlargement. Move your cursor to the "Q#" link to see the quilt's details. If the quilt’s title is highlighted in yellow or in red, it has found a home in a collection and is no longer available.

If you have any questions and/or comments please feel free to get in touch with me via email.

Enjoy,

Jim and Andy

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