Monday, September 25, 2017

3 Quilts and a Pair of Sushi Pants



My husband gave me the Legendary quilt pattern from Elizabeth Hartman a couple of years ago. I kept putting it off when it came to making it as there were sooooo many pieces. About 180 half square triangles for the background of the trees. Well I finally  cut it out and finished it in late April. I like the quilt top,  now I want to make it was a dark blue background and the  Abominable Snowman or as some people call it a Yeti in place of the big foot. The pattern actually goes together quickly its the cutting that killed me. I spent 2 days cutting and you have to be very organized and accurate or you will have issues when the whole thing goes together at the end. I saw a woman that made this same quilt but staggered the trees and had a sun in the corner. I liked the way that flowed. It had a much more organic feel to the quilt top then lining up the trees and big foot. I love Elizabeth's patterns but they are all very precise, I tend to like randomness in quilting...like the quilt below. 




I love Pendleton Wool. Living in Portland I'm close to one of the mill outlet stores and I go there often to get wool scraps. I have been collecting cream with yellow and black stripes for the last couple of years before I finally got enough to make this all wool quilt. It then took me a year to figure out the back and what I was going to do to quilt the piece. It's heavy so I knew I would not need a batting. I wanted a simple fairly lightweight backing that would not take away too much from the front of the quilt. 
I found a bolt of yellow wool fabric at a place called City Liquidators, they usually do not carry fabric but they had bought out a fabric store that closed about 5 years ago. The fabric store had a strange mix of polyesters from the late 70's, batik fabric from India, Cotton Jersey and strange uniform looking shirts. City Liquidators was selling the bolts of fabric for $25-$100 a bolt. There was a lot of fake fur and upholstery fabric that was the $100 bolts.  I found a bolt of yellow 100% wool fabric (about 16 yards) for $30. I'm not a fan of yellow but I could not pass up that much wool fabric for such a cheap price, I figured I would find something to do with that yellow fabric. 
After I finished the quilt top it lived on my wall for about 6 months. Looking through my fabric one afternoon I realized that the yellow fabric would be a great backing for the Pendleton Wool Quilt. 
I decided to tie this quilt because I thought it was too thick to put through my sewing machine. My husband cals this the Canadian Winter Blanket, it has been kitty tested and kitty approved. It's a 52"x 72" 100% wool quilt.



I found this quilt top at a resale store called ReRun in Portland. I think it was about $15, maybe $20, it was 88"x88". I liked the turquoise color and the Sarah Jane  Mermaid fabric that was used in the quilt. I was going to take this to the long arm and quilt the piece but in the end decide to tie this quilt too. I used a fluffy polyester batting so it was a little thicker, but not too heavy. It's a nice bright quilt that we used at the end of summer on our outdoor bed. 

 I finally finished the Sushi Pants for my husband. We bought the fabric in Hawaii last January and I kept putting off making pants for him as I made other things (like more quilts that we really do not need). They are a simple elastic west pant, with larger pockets. The pattern is Simplicity 3645, it very easy to sew. Needles to say he put the pants on as soon as I was finished & wore the pants the rest of the summer.