Bloggers' Quilt Festival-Spring 2012

  

Welcome Festival go-ers!

I don't have too many finishes here at the Type B Crafter (not shocking, given that blog name, right?!). I have a lot of tops (last count, maybe 25 to be quilted - eek!). But will re-share one of the rare finishes for the Spring Festival.

This is my Hash Marks quilt from October of 2011. I was inspired and motivated by the Project Modern Challenge hosted by the Modern Quilt Guild to finally put this idea into fabric.

I used three colors - Kona Khaki, Eggplant, and Pepper. There are 312, 4" blocks in this quilt (counting the ones on the back). Instead of piecing each block separately, I cut width of fabric strips in varying widths and sewed them together. Then, I used my 4.5" square ruler set at different angles to cut out the blocks. (Lots of bias with this technique - starch was my friend!)

It is a visual interpretation of counting the days while my husband finishes up his graduate degree. (Hash marks are also called "tally marks' - one horizontal line through four vertical lines signifying a count of 5.) I must have been feeling pretty down when I thought up this quilt because you often see prisoners in old period movies scratching marks like these into the wall for each day they're on the "inside" :) We've been moving around a lot in the last three years and haven't yet found a place to land. At one point it was looking like New Mexico, but now it's up in the air. Currently, we are in Madison, WI. Once my husband finishes his degree, we'll be off into the great wide open. Until then, I'm just counting the days :)

Back to the quilt. If you look closely, you'll see that every fifth block is a wonky horizontal block.  I purposely made the quilt 17 blocks across, so that the fifth mark would land in different places on the columns of the quilt. In the photo below, you might be able to make out the mistake I initially made on the fourth row because I didn't add enough wonky verticals (there should be another one at the beginning of row 4). (There are two blocks hanging off the right hand side of each row - I had to pin the rows to my design wall/table cloth.) So, yes, I went back through the rows and detached and reattached to make the five block scheme work out. If only I had made the mistake at row 15 or 16!

I had a comical experience trying to spray baste this quilt. It involved packing tape, my textured bedroom wall, and hope. But somehow the quilt was basted and I quilted it on my 1980's New Home. A major reason for me not finishing my quilts is basting room, as in, I don't have any. I live in a carpeted one bedroom loft apartment and despite living here for over a year now, we still have stuff in cardboard boxes (I'm always anticipating the next move!) and the stuff is everywhere! The other reason is that I don't have a machine on hand that likes quilting. Yes, my machine has personal preferences and quilting is not one of them. My Juki, which is in storage, on the other hand, loves quilting. But that doesn't do me to much good since she's in New Mexico.

Hash Marks is 68"x68," so kind of on the big side for me. I did "organic" straight lines at varying widths in an offset X pattern. I used mostly cream/off-white thread with purple and blue accent lines thrown in.

You can see the quilting better on the back - not sure how I feel about that, given the quality of the quilting. But I feel every quilt is a learning (or re-learning...) experience. The more I do it, the better I'll get, right? I hope, so! :)

And that's the story of my Hash Marks quilt. I love it and we enjoy it here in our home-for-the-moment!

Thank you so much for stopping by and enjoy the rest of the festival!!