I have [or had] quilts stashed on top shelves of closets that I had not seen for ten or more years. During the last two days I've been pulling down bags of quilts, taking them out, photographing and measuring. A couple of quilts surfaced that I haven't seen in a VERY long time and only dimly remember making. A couple were downright embarrassing. I made THAT! Oh, good heavens! There was a reversible Amish-style center diamond, hand quilted quilt -- so bad, even beginning Amish children surely would have made it better. I must say my photograph makes it look better than it really does -- which is the opposite of what usually happens with my photography.
The heartening side is that I have learned a lot about quilt making through reading and through the doing and through thinking seriously about what I was doing. But some of the newest remind me that I have not mastered corners of the binding. My Achilles heel, along with various other weaknesses. It's been an enlightening experience. A quilt I knew was there somewhere appeared and is now the wall quilt in the living room -- not "pretty" just squares but each hand quilted in a different geometric pattern. The arrangement of colors of the squares a close approximation of an Ellsworth Kelly painting. I don't understand why a fine artist chose that arrangement [and now why the original sold for thousands of dollars]. So I'm going to give it some attention for a few weeks and see what is satisfying about these colors in a pattern I never would have, with my less sophisticated artistic eye, arranged this way. NOTE: I have been trying to move the image down to here but it's stuck at the beginning of this post. Sorry about that. At least you can see what I'm writing about.
At the same time, I've tackled the rest of the contents of the closets and now have my mailing envelopes neatly arranged by size which they weren't before. And I can actually see a portion of the floor of my coat closet for the first time in aeons [I use the old fashioned spelling to show how long it's really been].
I wouldn't call the bottom of that closet chaos but it certainly was a very haphazard collection of stuff and now makes sense and is far neater. Such order making is good for the mind, body and even soul, I think.
2 comments :
I haven't mastered binding quilts either. I generally avoid it by using the pillow turning method so that I don't have to bind. But every now and again I have no real choice. I have some quilts in my background that I would rather forget. Luckily I don't have photographic evidence.
I like the colors on both of those!
Binding isn't my strong suit, either, but I'm getting better. DD brought me the flannel quilt I made her several years ago, because the binding was fraying and coming loose. Seems I put it on like a border! So I took it all off, and fortunately had enough of the fabric left to cut a new binding and have attached it the proper way. All it needs is to hand stitch it down, but I'm seriously considering machine sewing it for durability, as it needs to be washed in a commercial machine due to the size and heaviness of it, and her 3 pets who shed and play on it.
Can't believe I was such a dimwit!
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